Category Archives: Things

What I’ve Learned in a Half Century of Living on this Planet

Posted on by
23

2-20-2020

Seems like the number people feel like this is some special birthday for me. It’s my 50th. Ugh, that’s hard to type. 50 seems so fucking old! When I was in college, 50 seemed like a lifetime away and now that I’m here, I don’t feel 50.

I actually wasn’t going to write this. I’m in a world where being old is a career death sentence, especially in today’s world! “Wait, you’re a fifty-year-old, white dude!? Yeah, next…” I get it, most middle-aged white dudes are beyond lame. Also, fifty really isn’t middle-aged, unless I plan on living to 100!

…And with my high level of income, there’s no reason I can’t live to be 245, maybe 300! – Ricky Bobby

Mentally, I feel like I’m a young 30-ish. Humor-wise, maybe young 20’s. Physically, maybe 67, which also makes no sense because I work harder now at being physically fit than I have in twenty years! So, this entire birthday makes absolutely no sense to me.

What have I learned in my fifty years on this rock? 

– Don’t love or give expecting to be loved or given something in return. If you love to love, then love. If you love to give, then give. If you expect something in return, you’re going to be let down frequently.

– The best seats are almost always worth it.

– Find someone who makes you better and never let them go. Too often we find people who want to make us the best version of ourselves and we push them away, “why can’t you just accept me for me!” Because “you” suck, but you can be so much better! Let’s try!

– Once you drink four of anything, the quality and cost no longer matter. The person who says it does is most likely someone you don’t want to hang with, just from an annoyance standpoint. Yeah, I’m sure you can really tell the level of gin you’re drinking after the fifth one…

– It doesn’t matter how smart you are. If you bore the crap out of people they won’t hear what you have to say. If you try to impress the smartest person in the room, you’ll usually fail. Try to impress the rest.

– Never underestimate how great new shoes can make you feel.

– People in high-level jobs (CEOs, etc.), making millions of dollars are much more similar to you than you think. They just had better timing and networks.

– When someone tells you they have tried their hardest, most haven’t even given you 50%. That’s really hard for someone to hear, but it’s true. What they are really saying is “I’ve tried the hardest I’m going to for what I’m going to get out of this”. There’s a study that shows most people’s bodies will tell them they are done when they’ve only really used up 15% of their ability to keep going.

– Your value has little to do with your actual value and everything to do with how much someone is willing to pay you.

– A pizza and a six-pack in a hotel lobby with great friends always beats a 5-star restaurant when dining with idiots.

– Most people need a hug. A real, genuine hug. Linger a bit. Tell them you missed them. Tell them everything is going to be alright. Tell them you are there for them. Don’t linger too long, that’s creepy. Hug for real.

– People who tell you they aren’t the “Ritz Carlton” type, most likely haven’t stayed at a Ritz Carlton. Because that sh*t is dope! “It’s so choice…If you have the means…” – Ferris

– A great massage will leave you drooling like you had a stroke. Tip that person well.

– If you see someone who does something awesome, find a way to tell them, privately. A quick call, text, email, written note, pull them aside. That one-on-one interaction is the most valuable thing you can ever give them.

– “Call them again” is the most powerful recruiting strategy of all time. “I already called them and they weren’t interested.” So, call them again! That next call really makes you work. What are you going to say? What are you going to ask for? How will you get some kind of value out of this call? “Call them again!” 99.9% of people won’t make that second call.

–  It’s way better to know what you suck at than what you’re good at.

– No one on the planet works harder than a single mom. No one. Give these women a break. Help them. Admire them. Build environments that help them thrive.

– I’m simultaneously more woke and less woke as I hit the half-century. Part of me is so much more knowledgeable and understanding now as this age by a mile compared to younger me, and also older me just wants to know whey we all can’t just get along.

– Deadpool should have won an Oscar for Best Picture. Don’t @ me, Trolls! You can’t come up with a funnier movie, don’t even try. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is close.

– Don’t take financial advice from someone who’s car cost more than their house. They fail to understand the simple depreciation and appreciation of assets.

– Have an opinion. Hang with folks who don’t share your opinion, and value that fact you don’t share their opinion. It won’t get you promoted, but it will let you sleep at night, and lead to the best conversations you’ll ever have in your life.

– The only thing you’ll ever get everyone to agree on is puppies. 100% of everyone on the planet is in on puppies. Buy all the puppy stock you can.

– Don’t ever feel guilty about not spending ‘enough’ time with those you love, if the time you are spending away from them is for their benefit. But, when you do spend the time, really spend the time.

– Seeing other cultures and spending time around the world with people from other cultures is the best D&I training you’ll ever receive. Just go. The world continues to shrink. People will help you. I’ve made friends all over the world and it’s enriched my life beyond anything I could ever imagine.

– Hater’s gonna hate.

Thanks for letting me indulge myself today. I started blogging because I found it to be therapy. I write what I’m thinking. Sometimes you like it, sometimes you hate it, sometimes you forget about it the moment it’s read. Me too.

Kobe on Leadership and Life!

Posted on by
Reply

It seems like the entire world is talking about Kobe. The tragic accident that cost nine people their lives, including Kobe and his daughter.

I’m a Kobe fan.

It’s complicated, being a Kobe fan.

He has been accused of something horrible in his past. Like most rich people in the world, he got it to go away without any of us truly knowing the truth, but suspecting a whole bunch.

Kobe is one of the best basketball players ever. I loved watching him compete. I love watching him yell at teammates and seemingly not care if he was liked or disliked because he wanted to win more than anyone else on the planet. I love watching him with his daughters. Maybe the worst thing in his past, made him even a better father and husband (I don’t know).

Kobe is not like you or I. He was a true genius. He was better than 99.999999% of people who have ever played basketball. Most of us aren’t in the top ten percent of anything we do in life. Genius is extremely rare. Most people can’t understand genius. It’s a bit scary and completely uncomfortable from what we are used to.

As I said, it’s complicated being a Kobe fan.

In 2012, Kobe posted this on Facebook about leadership-

So, let’s breakdown the brilliance of what Kobe is saying about being a great leader:

1. Are you willing to make those around you uncomfortable to make them better?

2. Are you willing to push those around so much they might actually hate you at the time?

3. Success is more important, in the end, than being liked. 

4. Don’t tolerate victims.

5. We all have a leadership style that will get us to our highest level, it’s not all the same. 

I mourn the loss of a great basketball player and parent you died tragically with his daughter in a helicopter crash, as he was taking her to play the game he loved. I can’t imagine the heartache of those they left behind. As a father that has done that thousands of times, my own heart aches.

We are a totality of what we do in the world. That’s hard for me to reconcile. Humans can do the most wonderful, uplifting things we can ever imagine, and the most awful, and be the same person. Like I said, life is complicated and I tend to actually like how Kobe viewed leadership.

 

6 Ways Not to Treat a Speaker at Your Event!

Posted on by
3

I’m just getting ready to kick off the spring conference season and I’ve already had a handful of reminders of how not to treat someone who you are trusting to come to speak to your audience! It always amazes me how some conference organizers get this completely right and some fail massively!

Here are a few things you shouldn’t do:

1. Limit the conference pass to one day the speaker will be speaking. 

Really, you are asking me to come to speak at your conference, but then you are only going to give me access to your conference the one day you actually have me speaking? I think you’re missing the boat on what I might bring to the other days by having me there, plus you look super cheap and petty.

2. Only paying for one night of lodging. 

So, I’m coming from a snowy climate and you are now asking me to gamble that I’ll actually make it to your event. I can come the day before to ensure I’ll be there, but then you have me speak at 4 pm so I can’t possibly get a fight out, and now I have to pay for a room for an extra night on my own? Again, if you can’t afford two nights lodging for a speaker, you probably can’t afford to put on a conference!

3. Put limits on expenses that are so under market you are now turning me into a spendthrift to attend your event. 

It’s at minimum a $50 Uber ride from the airport to your venue, but you put in the contract a maximum of $35 for transportation from the airport. Or the only restaurant within walking distance is the hotel restaurant where the cheapest meal will be $40, but your limit is $25. Look, I don’t want to kill you on big expenses, but I also don’t want to pack my own lunch to make this work!

4. Give me a gift that is almost impossible to bring onto a plane. 

Okay, this sounds like I’m a pompous ass, right! Tim is complaining about a gift!?! But, if you give me a cutting board the size of Texas to bring home, I totally love the thought, but know that thing is never coming home with me! It’s not that I don’t love you did this, and it’s not generous, it’s that logistically it’s just a pain.

5. Don’t have diet Mt. Dew. 

Okay, this one is a bit personal but I don’t drink coffee and you want me coming in hot with the audience. Fully caffeinated, and shot out of a cannon!  “Would you like a bottle of water?” Nope! I’d like an IV drip of diet Dew!

6. Put them in a room that isn’t commensurate with the size of their audience.

Hey, we are so thankful for you to come to speak at our conference. To show you we put you in a room that holds 1,000 people, but we know only 50 will show up to see your session. Ugh! This is the worst ever for a speaker. To see hundreds of empty seats is defeating. It’s best to make the rooms smaller, have it standing room only, and the size of the room is a third the size. I don’t care about the size of the room, I care about how full the room is!

I’m a speaker and I hold events, and I understand the struggle of running an event and trying to make everyone happy. It’s next to impossible, but sometimes I think many of us aren’t even trying, or we care so much about the profitability of the event we start to treat people poorly.

The best events treat their speakers like a valuable commodity they want to return. How do we leave you with such a positive impression that you want to come back and you’ll tell your friends they should attend? That’s really the key. It doesn’t have to be about spending a bunch more money, but just making sure the speakers aren’t being put out of their way to perform their best at your event!

Do you want to work with Tim Sackett? This video will answer that question!

Posted on by
1

I’m a big fan of DisruptHR and the format! I’ve been part of the team that has run the first three DisruptHR Detroits and in 2020 we’ll do our first DisruptHR Lansing. Five minutes, 20 slides, each slide moves automatically every 15 seconds. Simple, yet so hard to pull off effectively!

There are now well over a hundred DisruptHR cities and hundreds of events worldwide taking place each year. My friend, Jennifer McClure, is the co-Founder of DisruptHR and it might the single best thing that’s happened to HR this decade! Truly. To get HR leaders and pros out of the office and stretch our minds, have a little fun, push the envelope of what HR could become. Give me something better than that in the last ten years!

You can start your own DisruptHR (input city name here) for $500! It’s easy, just contact Jennifer through the DisruptHR website. It’s fun. It really engages the HR community in your city. It’s fairly easy to get a few sponsors to throw some bucks at you to help with the cost. And even bad DisruptHR talks are some of the best DisruptHR talks!

I was fortunate enough to be chosen to speak at DisruptHR Grand Rapids this past fall and I went with a topic that started on my blog as a series – Rap Lyrics that have shaped my leadership style over time. On my blog, I think I counted down twenty-five in the series a number of years ago. I even once did a presentation for the local SHRM chapter in Jackson, MI on the concept and watched 40 mostly white HR ladies look at me in horror! 😉 Actually, they asked me to do it! Which shows how disruptive they are!

In the comments hit me with your best Rap Lyric that shaped your leadership style!

Let’s face it. If you hate the video, you probably don’t want to work with me, and I probably wouldn’t have much fun working with you! But, if you like the video – we can probably be fast friends! Let’s talk!

How Would a College Education be Different if you Were an Investor?!

Posted on by
1

There’s a concept that is starting to gain some steam in college tuition funding called “Income Share Agreements”. The basis of these agreements is pretty much “I” (the investor) pays “you” (the student) to go to college and get an education. Once you graduate and get a job, I take some of your annual salary for an agreed-upon time.

From the Washington Post:

In an ISA, a student borrows nothing but rather has his or her education supported by an investor, in return for a contract to pay a specified percentage of income for a fixed number of years after graduation. Rates and time vary with the discipline of the degree achieved and the amount of tuition assistance the student obtained.

An ISA is dramatically more student-friendly than a loan. All the risk shifts from the student to the investing entity; if a career starts slowly, or not at all, the student’s obligation drops or goes to zero. Think of an ISA as equity instead of debt, or as working one’s way through college — after college.

I like this alternative to student loans because it puts much of the risk on the investor and away from the student. Also, if higher education institutions get involved with these kinds of investment funds, it truly puts accountability back on their organization to ensure they are producing graduates who are desired and prepared.

Purdue University has been doing a ton of testing with these types of agreements:

Although the very nature of ISAs protects the participant, early adopters such as Purdue have built in safeguards. A user-friendly computer simulator provides quick, transparent comparisons with various public and private loan options. No investee pays anything for the first six months after graduation or until annual income exceeds $20,000. For those graduates who get off to fast career starts, a ceiling of 250 percent of the dollars that purchased their education limits total repayment.

All of this gets you to think about what might be possible if we walked away from traditional student loan programs altogether!

What if…

  • The amount of your investment into a student returned more than you could make on the stock market?
  • Students had to present themselves, as high schoolers, to investment groups to get funding for university?
  • Investors and investing groups were only willing to fund students in careers where they could get a good return on investment? Say goodbye to history majors!
  • College students had to meet with their investors and explain why they got a “C” and missed class because they were drunk!?
  • Organizations and HR Departments started investing in potential future talent in a very real way!?

I love disruption to traditional things we have come to believe just can’t be changed. This isn’t perfect and there are a lot of questions, but it’s worth testing and trying. What we know is traditional student loan programs are not working at all! Something has to change.

I’m GenX and a Capitalist, so I love the accountability of both the investor having to make sound, prudent investment decisions around who they feel is most likely to give them a great return on investment, and the student’s accountability of understanding there’s a cost/benefit to your career choices and what it will cost to pay back those choices.

What do you think? Would you allow one of your kids to get into one of these arrangements, or would you have been willing to do this in college? I think I would have had very few people want to invest in me, but those who did would have been paid back in spades!

 

What Sesame Street Character are You in Your Organization?

Posted on by
3

Sesame Street begins its 50th season on November 9th and it really got me thinking about the lessons and characters I grew up with watching this iconic show.  As I thought about it, I began to connect people in my own organization and how Sesame Street is really just a snapshot of our own professional lives.

So, here’s my Sesame Street view of Corporate America:

CEO = Big Bird – this was actually a tough one to select because Big Bird isn’t the leader we think of when we think of iconic leaders, but in the end, Big Bird is Sesame Street, just like Steve Jobs is Apple.

COO = Bert – He was always the conservative one, who was trying to get things done, while Ernie was trying to have a good time.

CFO = Count von Count – the Count was probably the easiest choice of all!

CHRO = Ernie – this was by far the most controversial selection. I could have gone with Oscar (boy my operation partners would agree with that! But, to me Ernie was the perfect partner for Bert (our COO). So to make the perfect marriage with Operations and HR, I decided on Ernie.  Influence goes a long way with a CHRO, and Ernie has tons of influence with Bert!

CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) = Aloysius Snuffleupagus (Snuffy) Think about it, who did Big Bird always go to for advice? Oscar was also a potential for this one.

VP of Sales = Cookie Monster – You need someone who is internally motivated, and my boy Cookie is a self-directed monster when it comes to getting cookies. I’m sure he’ll be the same way in bringing in sales!

Executive Admin to CEO = Oscar the Grouch – I really don’t blame them for being grouchy, they have a tough job. So many people want a piece of the CEO’s time, and it is their job to control the crowd but they are still grouchy! (secondary choice? Head of Payroll!)

Head of Legal = Telly – Ok, for those who can’t remember, Telly the Monster is the one who was always worrying.  So this fits.

And it gets tougher! I still have two Iconic Sesame Street Characters to decide on, Elmo and Grover…

CIO = Grover – Shy, but confident. Grover went about doing his business kind of in the background.  No need to be noticed, just getting things done and sometimes making a mess of things, just as we are getting comfortable, and that’s how I like my IT people as well!

Ah, Elmo, what can we do with our little carefree, energetic, naïve red monster?

Head of R&D = Elmo – He is probably the most inquisitive of all the Sesame Street characters and is always trying to learn.  So, tickle me silly, Elmo is leading our R&D department (Mr. Noodle was also in the running, but he’s a real person so I passed).

Throughout 50 years, Sesame Street has brought us a ton of characters, so I’m sure I missed a few. Send a comment if I missed one of your favorites or got one wrong in your mind.

 

Most of your dreams won’t come true…

Posted on by
Reply

…but some will.

That’s what it’s all about. We don’t live and work and struggle to reach every single dream. That’s impossible. We do all of this for the chance we might actually get the chance to see some of our dreams come true. Maybe even just one. I guess it depends on what kind of a dreamer you are.

I dream of great cookies (okay, not all my dreams are big, but they’re all mine!). I had some once in small local hoagie place in Omaha, NE. The best cookies I’ve ever had. I think the secret ingredient was crack because I could never get enough of them.

Okay, that was a small dream. But I got to experience it! And, it was glorious! It’s been more than ten years since I’ve had those cookies and I still remember them!

 Some dreams we have are giant and most likely won’t come true. I have a dream to coach the LA Lakers. It’s a dream. I’ve done almost nothing to fulfill this dream but dream about it and watch a lot of NBA games and coach my sons in rec league games. This dream, probably won’t come true.

 I’ve dreamed about my boys going to college. I started saving money for this when they were babies, and still save today. We pushed them constantly to get good grades and put their studies first. We made them go to bed at a decent time, even when they complained. We made them eat good food when they wanted junk, so they would have energy at school to learn. We sat with them and helped them fill out applications.

We made them eat good food when they wanted junk, so they would have energy at school to learn. We made sure homework was done before free time took place. We sat with them and helped them fill out applications.

 I have two boys in college and one well on his way. I worked for this dream, for a long time, in many ways.

 You see we all have dreams. Some just happen. Some will never happen. Some you have to work your ass off to make happen.

 Most of your dream won’t come true, but some will.

Mothers, Sons, and Daughters! #HRTechConf

Posted on by
Reply

I’m out at “The” HR Technology Conference this week in Las Vegas and a few years ago HR Tech started a Women in HR Technology event that happens the morning of the opening of the conference with specific content built around the unique role of women in our industry.

I’m a big fan, and I think LRP (the company that runs the HR Technology Conference, and Jeanne Achille who chairs this part of the conference) have done an exceptional job building content that you really find nowhere else in our industry. Which leads me to the panel I was on, “Mothers, Sons, and Daughters” with my co-panelist, Jess Von Bank and Kyle Lagunas.

The idea Jeanne gave us and we ran with was around this idea that women in technology play these multiple roles, that are very different than their male counterparts. Jess is a single Mom of three young girls and a successful professional in our industry. Kyle is a son and aspiring father, and I’m a son to a woman who started the business I currently run. We all have very strong beliefs around the impact and influence women make on our lives.

I can’t stress enough how this type of content does not happen at conferences. Not technology conferences. Not HR conferences. Not any conferences I’ve been to! It was real and raw, and we were able to have this awesome conversation with a bunch of attendees that was unfiltered.

You see my quote from the tweet above. One of the questions we wanted to tackle is, “Do women make better leaders?”

This part of the conversation really centered around how we were raised and what were the things our mothers gave us to be successful in life. Where those things the same things that possibly give women an advantage in leadership roles in the modern workplace?

Gen Z and Millennials are looking for workplaces and leadership that are empathetic, compassionate, developmental, and understand that they want to bring their whole self to work. Traditional leadership kind of frowned on all this. You come to work, to work! Don’t bring your personal life to work!

Any leader can have the traits to be successful as a modern leader, but we find that females tend to have more of these traits than males, and it much easier for them to develop these traits deeper, primarily because of how they were nurtured and nurture as mothers.

I left the session inspired by the women in our industry and the great things they are doing to move the workforce and our workplaces forward. Great organizations need great talent. That won’t happen in a traditional workplace that our parents grew up in. My mom ran a successful company partly because the employees of her company were her family. She used those words constantly and meant it. She took it very personal to make sure they could and would succeed.

I want to send a huge thank you to LRP and Jeanne for allowing us to indulge in a very personal topic that is ever-present, but rarely talked about!

How much would 1 share of you be worth?

Posted on by
Reply

What if instead of paying your university or trade school tuition, you paid them shares of your future self in the form of “Income Sharing“? That’s what some schools have been toying around with:

“The Lambda School teaches information technology skills online, and it charges zero tuition and offers stipends to select students. The deal is that students pay back 17 percent of their income from the first two years of work, if earnings exceed $50,000 a year, with a maximum payment of $30,000. Students who don’t find jobs at that income level don’t pay anything. Students may also opt to pay $20,000 in tuition upfront and keep their future income.

There are reportedly about 1,300 students enrolled, and the company has raised almost $50 million. The early job placement record is impressive; 86 percent of graduates have jobs within 180 days of finishing the program, at a median starting salary of $60,000. It is too early to judge results — how would these students have fared without Lambda or in a less strong job market? — but this kind of effort is an economist’s dream come true.”

The barrier for most people getting into the field they want is education and the cost of education. Are you willing to bet on yourself?
The entire concept is fascinating to me. It makes me think about how you value yourself. What are you really worth?

div data-position=”3″>Let’s say each of us was separated into 100 shares of theoretical stock. What would your stock be valued at certain times in your life? Would you be willing to sell a share or two or more at certain periods to help you pay for certain things at that time, or even use that money you got in return to purchase other shares of other people you believe will have higher value down the road?

The big question is what do you really get in owning stock in a certain individual? What if it was a portion of their earnings forever?
Each time this individual earns money and let’s say you own one share, you would get 1/100th of there earnings until they die or you sell their share to someone else, or they buy their share back. All of this helps you understand how to value yourself
I get asked almost weekly by folks who want to be consultants how much per hour should they charge? I don’t really have an answer because each of us has a different value and we all value the work we do differently. For a friend, my hourly rate might be $0, or some work I don’t really want to do that hourly rate might be $1,000 per hour.
I’m not sure what my stock value is currently, but I know it’s way higher than when I was in college believing I was going to start a career as a teacher. When I was twenty I would have sold shares of myself fairly cheaply and someone would have made out really well.
What do you think your current share price is? If you’re interested, I’m selling shares of myself for $1,000,000 each! DM for more information!

What’s the Secret to a Great Marriage? The Sackett Rules!

Posted on by
2

I’m on vacation this week with my wife. It’s our 27th wedding anniversary. Yes, it was a child marriage, don’t judge us. When I tell people I’ve been married 27 years I frequently get “the question”! So, tell us, what’s the secret to a great marriage!?

I like to answer that very straight forward, and while staring at the opposite spouse or partner who asked the question, I say directly into their eyes:

“Great sex!” 

Their immediate reaction to that answer tells me everything I need to know about their relationship.

Kidding! I don’t do that, but I should! That would be fun, but I think most HR ladies would be offended because they aren’t having great sex! 😉

Okay, why has my marriage lasted 27 years in no particular order:

– My wife holds it all together and has made me a million times better person than I would without her.

– My wife is exceptional at managing home finances, which has made our life a million times easier because we have very few disagreements over money. I let her buy anything she wants, and she takes an extremely long time to make up her mind on what to buy. It works!

– I put my wife first, in front of my kids, my family, my friends, my work, and well, maybe not my dog. I’ve told my three boys since they were little, I can make another one of you, I can not make another one of your Mom. (Honestly, I’m not perfect at this – sometimes any of these others get pushed ahead of my wife, but she knows, push comes to shove, whose team I’m on!)

– We have separate passions that we are free to explore, but we also have things we love to do together. I love to fish and golf, she doesn’t. She loves photography and scrapbooking, I don’t. We love to go to movies and to shop. You need alone time and you need together time. All of either doesn’t work.

– I’m a child of divorce, my wife is not. She had to fight like hell to get my head around just because you have a fight or don’t see eye to eye on something doesn’t mean you just walk away. Marriage isn’t easy, but it also shouldn’t be hard.

– My crazy fits her crazy. She constantly will say, “Do you think other people talk like this to each other!?” G*d I hope not for the sake of the world! My humor can be a bit dark, and while she is not that way, I think she secretly likes it.

– I agreed to never write about her on my blog. Okay, to be fair, when we got married I didn’t have a blog! So, just understand that you’ll constantly be renegotiating what you can and can’t do in marriage until you die!

What are your secrets to a great marriage?