August 13, 2009 28 Comments

Seeds In a Wild Garden

Twins Four years ago, Chris Penn and I co-founded PodCamp. We had a reasonably simple plan: make an event for people interested in new media like podcasting and videoblogging. We had no previous experience. We had no reason to believe we wouldn’t be successful. We just did it and it worked out.

There have been over 90 of these events. In many of them, another group started from (nearly) nothing and started their own experience. In all cases, I believe seeds were planted. Sometimes, they went unnoticed. Sometimes, they fell on rocky soil and didn’t take root.

In many cases, they have.

Thinking about the people who attended the first PodCamp 4 years ago, here’s who I connected with yesterday:

Christopher S. Penn – nice long conversation via IM.
C.C. Chapman – he’s participating in a project with me soon.
Julien Smith – he cowrote our book.
Doug Haslam – saw him last weekend, but read his blog yesterday.
Mitch Joel – we tweeted a bit back and forth about a good post he wrote.

And many more.

In all cases, I’ve been working on projects with people I met at PodCamp. The event connected me with Jeff Pulver (who attended the first PodCamp, too), which connected me to my current company, and it’s just this endless cascade of opportunities.

Julien found the best phrase for it and stuck it in Trust Agents: be the priest; build the church. Essentially, if you can make the movement happen through your passion, then good things might follow.

I’m grateful for the experiences that PodCamp gave me, but also for the seeds it blew into my wild garden.

What are you doing to promote wild new opportunities born out of creative, disruptive collaboration? Where are your seeds?

Related posts:

  1. Planting Seeds
  2. The Importance of Seeds
  3. On Death and Dying
  4. Why I Am Not Presenting at PodCamp Boston
  5. Quick PodCamp Starter Kit

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Genesis Framework

Genesis Theme Framework

The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Whether you're a novice or advanced developer, Genesis provides you with the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.

With automatic theme updates and world-class support included, Genesis is the smart choice for your WordPress website or blog.

Become a StudioPress Affiliate

  • http://detroit.fwix.com Jamie Favreau

    Very good question and I am going to speak up now. I am participating and Championing the first EVER #journchat LIVE Detroit. Well #journchat LIVE which originated out of Sarah Evans brain child. Where journalists, bloggers and public relations professionals which I hear scares a lot of people from all ends of the spectrum. I am working to open the lines of communication between all of the different diciplines in journalism on August 13. I would leave the link but it might be tacky.

    I am not working in the field but I am trying to build a network which I thought could handle an event like this. I have never done this before and I am hoping I have a better turn out then what is expected.

    I am hoping to learn a lot and grow from this! I know you need to start small but I have been working really hard both online and off but I think the word JOURN might scare people. I am not really trying to scare anyone. I just think an open line of communication would be helpful to all involved.

    Thank you for listening.

  • mikecj

    It's fantastic the way these connections stay with us over time. I helped out a celebrity who I'd met on Twitter when I first started blogging, and he's just offered to support a new project I'm working on – with his involvement ( which I didn't ask for) the project will probably be a success. To continue your analogy Chris, you really do reap what you sow.

  • bgavin

    Another good post, Chris.

    In addition to the friendship part of this post, I was struck by how much we have all accomplished in three years. How much our world has changed.

  • http://twitter.com/cmciampa Carla Marie Ciampa

    Great post Chris! Thank you, as always, for so simply stating the bold truth.

  • http://www.sametz.com/roundthesquare/ Tamsen McMahon (@Sametz)

    To be an excellent “sower of seeds” you need certain qualities–or have the desire and capacity to learn them, quickly, as you go along:

    1. The ability to recognize fertile ground. Is this a group of people, an organization, a market that has the potential for growth and change?
    2. If the ground isn't ready as-is, the ability to fertilize it. What needs to happen for change to take root?
    3. Lots and lots of seeds. Never underestimate the power of luck, both good and bad. You may have the perfect seed, and the perfect environment, and some might just not go. More seeds = higher probability of success.
    4. Time. You don't get from seed to plant without all the in-between steps. Some plants grow faster than others, but they all have to break from the shell, put down roots, push up to the soil, and grow.
    5. Attention. Another word for this might be care. You have to tend your garden. If the environment is drying up, you need to give water. And you need to know when to lay off and let mother nature do her work.
    4. Tolerance for failure. I'd rather plant 100 seeds and have 25 fail than plant only 10 with complete assurance they'd all survive. In one case I have a 25% failure rate–but 75 plants. In the other, nothing dies, but only I have 10….
    5. For any of the above, know someone who can do it better than you, if you can't. Most of us aren't great at all of these things. But you probably know enough people that when you all work together, you can accomplish great things.

    Clearly you, Chris, and CC have the ability to see fertile ground, not just in yourselves, but in each other. We're all luckier for it.

    Thanks for hijacking my thoughts first thing this morning! Read your post on the ride in this morning, and couldn't do anything else until I'd responded….

    Tamsen (@tamadear, @Sametz)

  • http://twitter.com/DougH Doug Haslam

    Chris,

    Still can't believe the first PodCamp was three years ago– and lots of people- including the ones you list on the blog- made opportunities for themselves in the months and years since. I'm just tickled to be associated with such a group. I was awed by how you all put together the first PodCamp– and really, many of you hadn't even done anything yet (your story is a great example)!

    Thanks for another thoughtful post– oh, and thanks for stopping by the blog. will check my stats for “Recent pantloads” (recent joke, long story) and wait for the “Brogalanche.” ;P

  • http://twitter.com/Merlene Merlene Paynter

    Chris,
    As you know I've been living this motto for the last 11 months thanks to you and to the amazing people I've connected to because of you.

    I've planted lots of seeds in the past few months. Some are growing into sturdy plants that nourish, others have grown into beautiful, exotic flowers, yes a few of them didn't make it but I'll keep on planting the seeds :)

  • http://www.timjahn.com/blog Tim Jahn

    I'm a big fan of connecting people that I think might collaborate well together. Even if they don't need me, it's good to see like people put their brains together to further their ideas.

    And the thing about sowing seeds is you know certain ones will grow into something good, whereas there are others you could never predict the amazing blossom that will happen.

  • http://thelostjacket.com Stuartfoster

    What are you doing to promote wild new opportunities born out of creative, disruptive collaboration? Where are your seeds?

    Two very simple things: 1. Organizing and crowdsourcing millenial ingenuity and hard work at http://dartboston.com (Which we eventually think could create a Y-Pulse type event for the Northeast.

    2. Working on creating and engineering The Lost Jacket as a thought leadership platform and potential agency starting point. Keeps looking better and better on that front. :)

  • http://www.twistimage.com/blog mitchjoel

    Push it further my friend. You and I had an online chat as well… and we met at that first PodCamp. When like-minded people connect with the sole purpose to share, build and grow, what did you think would happen?

    Exactly that :)

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for sharing your ideas in this review,which I think really informative.
    This really shares about your personal ideas.

    Thanks for this!

    http://hostwisely.com

  • http://squidoo.com/trafficpython nthomas00

    I recently had some creative seeds into my “garden” from one of your blog post about how to get more Twitter followers. It was very informative.

    -Nikki-

  • http://twitter.com/LifeArtist Frank DiCostanzo

    The notion of “planting seeds” is so important for those new to the social media experience. We are each creating our own experience in realtime, but we are creating our legacy online, one post and one tweet at a time. And, as you eluded to, the success or failure of one's dreams often lies in the chance seed. Today my seeds fly free in the cyber-wind of blog posts, blog comments, emails, tweets, searches, and other footprints. Wherever I go, I leave seeds for the like-minds of the future…

  • http://pmerrill.com/ paulmerrill

    January 2009 ws the Boulder Podcamp. It was awesome. I wish there were another next month.

    Good on you, Chris.

  • Pingback: karabrickman.com » Blog Archive » Invasion of the Pod Tweeple

  • http://virtualimpax.com virtualimpax

    So often, I fear my seeds will fall on rocky soil and won't take root. So I hoard my seeds – waiting for the perfect soil – the perfect weather – the perfect time. Thanks for sharing that not ALL of your seeds take root – and how they sometimes take root in unexpected places.

  • 617patrick

    Great stuff, but I do have one “disagreement”.

    If you connect with competitors on LinkedIn, they can then browse your connections, which means they may try to harvest the names of decision makers at your client's company. LinkedIn doesn't have much granularity in allowing you to prevent this. There is a single switch that allows

    - all of your connections to see all of your other connections
    - none of your connections to see any of your other connections

    I wrote a blog about the details at http://www.the-linkedin-speaker.com/blog/2009/0…

  • http://twitter.com/joshchandler Josh Chandler

    Jamie,

    I have been a fan of #journchat for a while now, never been able to actively keep in touch with the conversation threads during the active discussions! @prsarahevans is doing a fantastic job with it! It's exciting to hear it's now extended into real-world live discussion, be sure to keep me posted on how it goes, email me:

    josh@joshchandlerblog.com

    Thanks

  • http://twitter.com/joshchandler Josh Chandler

    Tamsen, furthermore on your point of people needing to have the “ability to recognize fertile ground”. I begin to wonder how we view our decision making ability in a wide open market like the World Wide Web, does it become a harder task, or is it manageable?

    I mean, in the real-world (offline) situation we have much greater control over our choices, but times that by 1000X in the virtual (online) world and you have a much bigger task to manage!

    And, another point you make about “attention; You have to tend your garden. If the environment is drying up, you need to give water.”, makes me realize just how important it is to not get distracted by looking for new opportunities when we have to be sure we tend to our own flock (community) first before anything else, otherwise a vast disconnect occurs!

    Great points Tamsen, thanks :)

  • michelson23

    Great post .Thank you,

  • http://www.sametz.com/roundthesquare/ Tamsen McMahon (@Sametz)

    Thanks, Josh–what a great question about decision-making in the face of the information fire hose. For those who lack clarity in what they're trying to accomplish, I'm sure the new wealth of information (and access to it) makes it very, very difficult. (I like to paraphrase the Cheshire Cat on topics like this: if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there!).

    But for those with clarity–crystal clarity–decision making is no more or less hard, as all that's required is evaluating new information against previously established filters (does this fit? if yes, plant. if no, move on). But that's where your second point about attention comes in…it takes enormous discipline to hold focus and not be distracting by the newness and shininess of tools.

    It always comes back, however, to your purpose: what is it I'm trying to do, and will this contribute to or complicate those efforts?

  • http://www.sametz.com/roundthesquare/ Tamsen (@tamadear @Sametz)

    Thanks, Josh–what a great question about decision-making in the face of the information fire hose. For those who lack clarity in what they're trying to accomplish, I'm sure the new wealth of information (and access to it) makes it very, very difficult. (I like to paraphrase the Cheshire Cat on topics like this: if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there!).

    But for those with clarity–crystal clarity–decision making is no more or less hard, as all that's required is evaluating new information against previously established filters (does this fit? if yes, plant. if no, move on). But that's where your second point about attention comes in…it takes enormous discipline to hold focus and not be distracting by the newness and shininess of tools.

    It always comes back, however, to your purpose: what is it I'm trying to do, and will this contribute to or complicate those efforts?

  • Pingback: How to grow ideas — Tamsen McMahon

  • Pingback: pippero77 sent a grammar edit. | gooseGrade

  • Pingback: sowmyanuka sent a grammar edit. | gooseGrade

  • steve

    I really like this garden company and its seed selection. I’m fasincated by the purple peakcock broccoli/kale selection.

    smart lipo

  • http://www.memorybits.co.uk/ micro sd

    This is great way to stay with us is these connections over time. I found a celebrity who I was when I first started blogging on Twitter helped, and I'm working on a new project only support is offered – with their participation (which I did not ask for) will probably project a success. Chris to continue your analogy, you really do reap what you sow.

  • Pingback: Personal Cartography » How to Grow Ideas