We All Just Need A Chance, Thankful Tyler Anderson Was That Industry Leader For Me!
Life is freaking hard and no matter what industry or stage of your career that you’re in the journey is bumpy and success is never overnight. Success is often a crazy mix of timing, working hard, some luck, working smart (not just hustling) and the syncing up of your passion and purpose. I will also add that it is never just one person working solo. You must have a team of people working with you. And, you also need people in your life that give you a second chance or kick you in the nuts at the right moment. Most importantly you need those people who give you a chance when others wouldn’t.
For me, that chance happened June 30th, 2015 in San Diego on a day known as Social Media Day. Social Media day is an event created by Mashable in 2010 that is now celebrated each year on June 30th at different locations around the world. In 2015, I had begun making a name for myself in social media as the guy who had the tagline “Talks fast and tweets faster” an early technology adopter, and passionate fan of live streaming on Meerkat.
I had almost literally come out of nowhere. Well, that’s what many thought. Although if they looked a little deeper I had worked in cyber security for 9 years for the department of defense, created my dream job at a data center company as a technology evangelist, and in 2014 was recognized by the Economist as the top 25 social business leaders of the future. But in marketing and more so the social media marketing space I had two successful Twitter chat + Google Hangout shows that I co-hosted weekly and was proudly an anti-niche guy. Then SXSW 2015 happened and a little app called Meerkat emerged and it fit my personality like a glove as my mom said I came out of the womb talking and I had always believed that perfection was a fairytale so I loved the idea that I could fire up the phone turn the camera towards me and go live. The one major issue with being the “anti-niche” person is when you’re the new guy and anti-niche you’re looked at as disruptive and too reckless as you don’t fit in a bucket and can’t be compared to just one leader in that industry.
So here I was a guy who had been very successful in my technology career and given multiple keynotes on many big stages in the technology space from 2007–2014 without a niche, looked at as reckless and best known for an app called Meerkat that most marketers dismissed as a shiny object and that live streaming would die off just like Peach and Ello had before it.
My chance, my guy, happened to be a 6 foot something hybrid mix of a surfer boy meets ex-professional athlete, Dad, married to what looks like a supermodel with a booming digital agency that discovered me after seeing me tweet a lot at an event in 2014. His name is Tyler Anderson, CEO/ Founder of the Casual Fridays agency as well as Tack (Social Media SaaS) tool, host of the Social Media Social Hour podcast and executive producer of the event Social Media Day San Diego which was in it’s second year back in 2015.
Now many leaders, especially in the marketing field, will say they love discovering younger talent and they invest time in consuming others content and really want to help new talent get discovered but very FEW leaders back that up by actually making that happen.
In April 2015 I received the Facebook message you see below asking if I wanted to join his podcast. An opportunity that I of course jumped at to discuss Meerkat vs Periscope. I would later find out that Tyler Anderson used the podcast, with almost all potential speakers, as his testing ground to see if they were subject matter experts enough to even entertain being on his event stage. Soon after the podcast he offered me the chance to speak at SMdaySD and for whatever reason I dragged my feet getting him a response but he kept on top of me and I said yes. At the time I co-hosted a show called Social Business Hour and another called Cloud Talk so most people wanted me to talk about that stuff. Tyler wanted me to discuss Meerkat versus Periscope which really excited me as I had already been working with brands to leverage a strategy I called “Think Like A Fan.” We used that strategy as the placeholder for the presentation and Tyler trusted me to deliver a brand new speech on his stage for my first time presenting at a major event in the social media industry.
To recap, Tyler asked me on his podcast to talk about a rather polarizing marketing topic at the time. He then made sure to lock me in to speak at his event which was one track so main stage speakers only and he was excited for me to deliver a brand new presentation that I had never given before.
Fast forward to the day of the event and I arrive in San Diego to a beautiful hotel and large stage alongside some of the biggest names in social media: Jay Baer, Amy Schmittauer, Sue B Zimmerman, Mike Stelzner, Mari Smith and Pat Flynn to name a few. Leading up to the event I had told Tyler that I was going to be trying new things and changing my deck up until the last minute and he was super supportive. So I figured why not throw a curveball 30 minutes before my presentation and ask him if he minded me live streaming my walk onto the stage from my phone and having the AV team leverage a beta tested embed app from Periscope so the audience could see and hear everything on the big stage. Without hesitation, Tyler said, “Hell yeah man go for it if you think you can make it work and show the AV guys what to do I trust you!”
“I Trust You”
Tyler didn’t need to trust me, he didn’t need to give me a chance, he didn’t have to roll with the craziness that I bring to everything I do but he did and damn it I’m thankful he did. (I just happened to be tied with Amy Schmittauer for highest rated speaker of the event)
The live stream walk-in went off without a hitch and some would argue that was the first and best presentation of Think Like A Fan I would ever give. Yes, since that day I’ve given that presentation 30+ times and have spoken at more than 50+ events in 11 different countries. I’ve been on 100+ podcasts now as a guest while speaking professionally and social media strategy are the foundations of my business. Even crazier Tyler had me back again in 2016 and the event was even bigger and better than the year before.
These last two years have been a crazy ride for me and I’m proud to be the “anti-niche”, fast talking guy that’s introduced as a change evangelist on stage. But I can say without hesitation that my thrust into the social media marketing industry wouldn’t have been anything close to what it has these last 2 years if it wasn’t for the guy with surfer good looks based out of San Diego doing what most only talk about in giving those up and coming in the industry the space and chance to shine.
Thank you, Tyler Anderson, for the chance, your wisdom these last two years and the friendship we’ve created. I know 2017 Social Media Day San Diego happening today is only going to be bigger and better than the years prior.
