Panelists – Peter Shankman and Jelena Woehr, Social & Community Communications Manager, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Just an aside. Peter started off with this: “everyone knows me, so I won’t introduce myself.” Dude – no offense, but I don’t. I think you wrote a book? I just found your website to link to your name… Go ahead and give a brief introduction next time. Just sayin!
Now onto the panel discussion. This panel was sorta kinda about millennials, their personal brands, and being a good employee while maintaining a personal brand. So discussion floated around those concepts.
Peter – entrepreneurship is the new MBA. I disagree… anyone can get an MBA, most people don’t have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Or maybe I missed the point 🙂
Millennials – 1 in 4 move back in with their parents…
People over 25 – more college grads are unemployed than those who have a high school degree.
Get a real job, then go home and work on your business.
Peter – claimed that CEOs don’t trust millennials, so a new employee needs to gain a level of trust. Don’t embarrass the company you work for.
A lot of talk about trust…
Millennials need to learn that for the boss, “it’s all business, never personal.” Bosses have to make business-oriented decisions, and you won’t necessarily be their friend. Instead, find a job that you love, then post that. That loyalty will shine through. But don’t fake it.
Giving a comparison between Anthony Weiner and Elliot Spitzer. Elliot did something wrong, then disappeared and owned it. He’ll be forgiven. Anthony didn’t own it, and will probably never be in an elected position again. The point – own your mistakes.
Mentorship is important. Ask “what did I do wrong,” learn from the mistake and fix it. The mistake won’t come back to bite you, but the lie about it will.
Gave some examples of bad use of social media … people getting fired, bad dates, etc. Point – be smart. Do better work thatn everyone else (which isn’t hard – just try a little harder than everyone else). Do that, and you will be noticed.
Jelena told a funny story – two guys in the woods, and a bear starts chasing them. One guy said “run!” The other guy said “what’s the point? The bear’s faster – we can’t outrun it.” The first guy said this: “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun YOU.” Point – just outrun the next guy, and you will do ok!
ou can get away with a lot with your personal brand, as long as you still produce (i.e., produce good content, good results, etc).
They claimed young adults have a 2-3 second attention span… this panel had some good info, but you had to tone out some of their big blanket statements that weren’t really accurate (i.e., the attention span thing, the MBA thing, etc.).
Q & A:
How to write better – take a class, read good books. Travel? Seriously? Travel is cool, but travelling will not help you write better. Thankfully, someone else piped up and said “write a lot, get people to critique you.” Thanks Mr. Attendee Man!
Older people in business – they have something that millennials don’t. They have experience.