Intriguing Insights on How to Create Compelling Communications That Pass The Eyebrow Test®

How could I write a blog about what POP’d out this week without discussing the phenomenon that is Susan Boyle?

Perhaps you’re one of the 85.2 million (!) people who have viewed her YouTube clip of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables that received a rousing standing ovation from the just-moments-before jaded judges and audience on the Britain’s Got Talent TV show.

Susan, a 47 year old “unglamorous” woman who lives with her cat in a tiny town in Scotland, doesn’t own a computer, has never been kissed, and had never heard of YouTube. Now, one week after her audition went viral, she has 1 million “friends” on Facebook, her own Wikipedia article, and is the Web’s hottest entertainer.

Why? What has contributed to this “perfect storm” of instant global fame?

Henry Jenkins, co-director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program, attributes it to something he calls “spreadability” in which online consumers find and then voluntarily forward a favorite clip to their social network.

Lynn Johnson, a Salt Lake City psychologist says it’s because we “want to believe in something higher.” When we discover it, we achieve an emotional state called “elevation,” a warm, glowing feeling that comes over us when something transcends our expectations.

A Washington Post article by Jose Antonio Vargas mentioned that many people “were drawn by the one-act-play quality of the video, with a beginning, middle and end complete with a heroine (Boyle) and a villain (the snarky Simon Cowel).”

Anne Jolley, a self-confessed frumpy 47 year old interviewed by USA Today reporter Maria Puente, confesses to being “disheartened, disenfranchised, disillusioned and dis-just-about-everything-else in these bleak times.” She said Boyle’s performance lifted her spirits and gave her “reason for hope in the world and proof that dreams can come true.”

I agree with all the above.

What’s this mean for you? If you’re a speaker, musician, author, politican or leader . . . it means that to the degree you:

* transcend people’s expectations,
* give disenheartened people reason for hope
* elevate people’s spirits

is to the degree they voluntarily spread YOUR message and take your cause, campaign, creation or company viral because they become your enthusiastic word-of-mouth advertisers.

If so, good for you. It means you’ve got your finger on the pulse of POP! (pup?) culture.

You can’t pick up a newspaper without reading about “Bo,” the new resident of the White House and official “First Dog.”

A 4-14-09 USA Today article features CEO’s and their pooches with the sage advice from Plaxo’s Ben Golub to “Never work with someone whose dog isn’t overtly happy to see them when they come home, or vice versa.”

A new book “One Nation Under Dog” talks about the $17 bilion (yes that’s a b) we spend annually on our “fur babies.” A local church is packing them in with its “Paws in the Pews” service and a bar in Virginia hosts popular petworking opportunities at its monthly Yappy Hour.

What’s that mean for you? Big business if you can figure out how to capitalize on the 6 out of 10 households who own pets and are more than glad to patronize any business who invites them in.

I’m here in CA speaking at the annual Invent Your Future conference which attracts top female executives from Silicon Valley companies including Apple, Genentech, Northrop Grumman, Robert Half and Symantec.

Keynoters included MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, NPR’s Cokie Roberts and the inimitable Bertice Berry, Ph.D. who did her usual outstanding job of dissolving the audience into laughter and tears . . . all while causing everyone in the room to reflect and reach personal and professional epiphanies.

For me, the session that truly POP’d out in terms of eye-opening value was the one featuring Nell Merlino — the seriously impressive Fullbright Scholar who created and produced the Take Our Daughters To Work Day for the Ms. Foundation for Women

Here’s how it happened, as described in Nell’s presentation. She hatched the idea and explained it in a comprehensive report but realized it was too long. She whittled it down to 5 pages and then down to 1.

Just think.

An original idea that catapulted a movement which has positively impacted millions was condensed into a pithy (one of the prerequisites of POP) 1 page.

Nell was in Ms. Headquarters in New York pitching the idea when Gloria Steinem – in all her glory – walked into the room and asked “What’s new?”

Nell gave her the piece of paper outlining her concept for the Take Your Daughter to Work Day.

Gloria, ever the editor, changed the “Your” to “Our” to make it more of a group effort and announced, “I’m having lunch with Walter Anderson (of Parade Magazine — the Sunday supplement in newspapers across the country) today. If he asks me, ‘What’s new?’ I’m going to show him this.”

Well, Walter Anderson did ask “What’s new?” and Gloria did explain the idea to him. He was so impressed, he ran a story about it in Parade magazine which was delivered to 33 million homes (!).

It was an idea whose time had come. Ms. Foundation for Women received 10,000 letters in the next 2 weeks, all from people asking, “How can I get involved?”

On the actaul day of the inaugural event, Nell didn’t know if it was going to be a success. She turned on her television to check the news and saw a young girl delivering the weather report with her father. Then, the phone started to ring with jubilant calls from friends around the country telling what they were witnessing. One friend called from Grand Central Station and said, “The train station is FILLED with thousands of girls going to work with their parents!”

Nell told many more moving examples of how this one idea has dramatically changed the lives, career paths and professional aspirations of young girls everywhere — while bonding them with their parents because they finally understood “what my mom or dad did at work all day.”

A true pioneer, Nell wasn’t content to stop there. She is now Co-Founder and CEO of Count Me In For Women’s Economic Independence, which sponsors the Make Mine a Million program.

Want to read more about Nell’s inspirational stories and ventures? Want to learn how you can scale your business with the guidance of experts so it makes a million dollars? Like to tap into the brilliance of a trail-blazing leader?

If so, buy a copy of Nell Merlino’s just-released book “Stepping Out of Line: Lessons for Women Who Want It Their Way . . . In Life, Love and at Work.” I guarantee it will stretch your thinking and motivate you to scale your activities to maximize your impact and income.