Thinking about the time I scoffed at someone’s MA in communications
Dear SJ,
Not to ruin the odyssey of surprises around aging for you, but one nice thing is you get wiser. And your silly, annoying, loveable, frustrating brain — to help you build wisdom — will dredge up random memories and say, “Hey wouldn’t it be fun to think about this thing from like, May 2012?”
Yesterday I remembered how I once teased a friend about getting a Master of Arts in Communications: “Why do you need to pay to learn how to do something you already know how to do? … And well, if I might add?”
To start, I was ignorant about what the degree actually entailed (although to be fair, it is a generic degree title). And I never asked.
The punchline though, is that as I got further into my career, I realized communications was actually the hardest thing a person can ever hope to figure out while they’re alive. And it is, of course, the key part of running a business well. Or at all.
We’ve gone over more straightforward parts of business like setting one up, and there are many other topics we could cover around writing a business plan, setting — and following — a budget, fundraising, or hiring employees.
But I realized that advice like that is easy enough to find from other people, and relatively straightforward to work through (here’s that thing about DYOR but more difficult again though, if you need it).
What people keep telling me they really need is help with communications. Specifically, conversations.
I asserted an original view that we need more broad listening* so I’m going to go back and get into that more. Without conversations, the rest of business can’t happen. (And thanks to Ginny Redish, we know websites should be treated as conversations too. Mind blown.)
Not that I believe in hacking or cheat codes, but if I can help you make new and interesting mistakes instead of the cliché ones the rest of us made in our 20s, I’ll be satisfied.
Also… the friend who got that MA happens to have your initials, but backwards. JS, I was totally wrong. I’m sorry.
*The SEO nerd in me is psyched AF that the 6 June 2024 search results for “broad listening” ranked my piece fourth in the results list. Nothing humble about this brag. 💪
