The Intentional Sharing Movement – Let’s share things worth sharing

We need sharing that is done more intentionally. 

 

Connectors

Some people are connectors. Connectors see two great things and bring them together. 

Connectors think of you when they read, listen to, or see something that you would love, that you would get use from.

They introduce you to special people, special opportuntiies, and special things.

Our world lacks connection. Our world needs more connectors… and, what’s important to know, connection is a positive sum game. The rising tide lifts all boats.  

If you don’t have a connector in your life you’re missing out. If you’re not acting as a connector yourself, you, and those around you, are missing out. 

It’s time to share things worth sharing. 

 

The Greatest Ideas Don’t Have To Be Yours…

They really don’t. Stop obsessing over who owns the idea.

Even if you’re the sort of person who wants the legacy and pride in having sparked something, you should focus on sharing great things anyway.

 

I started a bunch of new things in 2020, but few were as powerful as being involved in the launch of someone else’s idea – The Hello Stranger Launch. 

I learnt an incredible amount from this experience, and built relationships with people who would soon start helping me with my dreams.  

By connecting others and sharing the work of others, you will learn more and open up more doors for yourself. I daresay that will lead you to start something more remarkable anyway. 

 

The rising tide lifts all boats my friends. 

Mankind is no island. Share the great things that others do, and in turn the great things you do will be shared. 

 

The Ripple Effect – Small Actions With A Big Impact

My life has been profoundly shaped by the sharing of those around me. Intentional Sharing is a pebble in a pond that can ripple out endlessly. 

 

I spent a bit of time doing nonprofit work abroad – what did I learn about those of us who fly halfway around the world to ‘help people’?

That many of us will fly halfway around the world to “help”, but will not participate back in our home countries in re-establishing a sense of community, or actively supporting others in their great work. 

 

Do you know who Dr. Evan Davis is, or what he did in 1957?

He had a dinner party at his family home and introduced two equally thought-provoking gentlemen to each other. Well, it so turns out that these gentlemen would go on to form the most famous and prolific investing partnership of all time. 

Their names were Warren Buffett and Charles T. Munger. 

Without the connecting and sharing of one Dr. Evan Davis, who could not have expected to match-make that evening in 1957, the world would today be without a good portion of its wisdom. 

 

Now that’s a ripple effect. That’s very efficient impact. 

 

Don’t Share Bullshit

Sharing things worth sharing means that we should not share things that are not worth sharing at the same time. 

In other words, no noise. 

 

I don’t know about you, but I live on a very selective information diet (credit Tim Ferriss – low-information diet). 

I consume a lot but it’s what I choose to consume, or what trusted sources share to me… not just anyone, and certainly not what a social media algorithm or news network decide I should see. 

If you fill any part of my world with noise, beware, I’m ruthless with the unfollow and unfriend buttons. 

 

Don’t share bullshit. The world needs less noise, because more people have voices now but they don’t use them proactively. 

If we cut out the social media movements and trivial online campaigns and fundraisers, we leave room for the good messages. The right messages. 

This is an important part of it all. 

 

This is the third time you are being told – do NOT share bullshit. 

 

Things To Share And How

 

1) The great ideas of people you don’t know. 

Great ideas of others I want to share – I don’t need any credit for it. The ideas need to get out in the world. I’ll happily participate in word-of-mouth.

 

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin.

Jeff Booth’s warning around deflation is interesting to me.

A book called Awareness by Anthony De Mello.

The approach of Tim Ferriss. 

 

Check them out! No I don’t get royalties or kick-backs. They’re ideas worth sharing. 

 

2) Your Community

I’m incredibly biased towards those in my community. Not network, as in, not business network. I don’t have one of those – I just have friends, and family, and the line between those two becomes increasingly blurry as time goes by.  

If you’re part of my community, you tend to get my support for free, normally to the fullest I can offer one of my skills, even if it is something I would normally charge for. 

Shouldn’t we all do the same?

 

I know how scary it is to venture into the unknown, so I am always the number one fan of anything unusual a friend is doing, or anything I can tell they are doing purely out of passion. 

I’ve even had people ask me if I have a vested interest, if I’m getting paid to do it… it’s sad…. 

People see us doing something proactive and think “There must be something in it for them”. Of course there always is something in it for us, the sharers, the connectors: Joy. To be a chapter in their story. 

Is there a better currency?

 

Here’s just some of my friends doing cool things. 

• The obvious, Nick Abraham and Scott McKeon, my ‘Nepal buddies’. Interlock Construction and Espresso Displays respectively. 
• As a football (known as soccer in America… the round ball one) fanatic, I’m proud to be acquainted with the lovely kickingoffwithkat blog. She always makes me feel like I’m there at the game!
• Leana has moved on from baking to laser cutting. Side hussle fanatic. 
• Conrad and Hodge, for my Aussie NRL fans, they’re running take_the_2. 
• Andrew started a fantastic podcast called Hello Stranger (you never know what’s waiting on the other side of hello…)

 

There are others. I hope there will be even more in the future.

Without any expectations or pressure, I am a very proud and true fan of these people and many others like them. 

 

3) Yourself And Your Own Great Ideas. 

There is a word I have avoided using so far, but it is a powerful word that I will introduce now: Marketing. 

We can think about marketing in a better way… we normally concentrate on marketing our own ideas, but whenever we participate in word of mouth, we are marketing too. We are spreading ideas. 

Just look at how the greatest marketer of all time made a message of permanence without writing any books or ads. 

 

For what is marketing if it is not the spreading of ideas? 

Why is it that our ideas deserve marketing?

Shouldn’t we give priority to the best ideas?

Why wouldn’t we share things worth sharing? 

 

Famous investor Ray Dalio has a great book called Principles in which he writes about the idea meritocracy within his company. An idea meritocracy is an environment where the best idea wins. 

Most of the internet is not an idea meritocracy – it is a place where those who have a voice get priority, and those of us underdogs need to fight to get our toe in the door. 

We can create an idea meritocracy by sharing ideas worth sharing. If we intentionally share good things, we will no longer rely on algorithms and social media, on #trending. There can be a system where good ideas rise to the top. 

 

This is a more pure form of marketing. 

This is our own pure algorithm. 

 

If you have something great and do not share it, it’s theft, not humility. You are robbing the world of an idea worth sharing. 

Oh, you thought your idea was just for you? Your idea is not yours, it belongs to us all. Not sharing it is selfishness. 

 

I’m very happy to promote my own ideas when the time is right (forgive me, I have so many of them). They are always things I believe to be worthy of distribution – not items to be sold simply because they can be. 

I will not list them here, as this is not the time. 

 

Would You Sign-Off With A Call To Share Things Worth Sharing?

To underscore this movement, most content I create is signed off with the call-to-action to share intentionally. I ask people to consider whether what I have written, said, or made is worth sharing. 

And, if the answer is yes, then they should share it. The failure to do so is almost criminal – to me, to them, and to the people in their sphere who could benefit from it. 

If the answer is no, then why should I ask them to share, forward, repost, or whatever? 

 

I would encourage you to adopt, or at least trial a similar approach. Ask your audience, be they big or small:

Hey, have you benefited from our product or our service? Well we enjoyed helping you, and we’re always looking for more journeys we can contribute to. So, if you know anyone, would you please connect us? 

We subscribe to the intentional sharing movement. 

 

This is a marketing system that is better and higher ROI than any pay-per-click. It’s more honest, more communal, and fairer. 

Oh, and it’s easy-peasy. Just share things worth sharing.

 

Join the Intentional Sharing Movement, where we change the world by sharing things worth sharing. If this piece would ‘open a door’ for someone you know, please share it. 

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