“People love gossip. It’s the biggest thing that keeps the
entertainment industry going.”
—Ellen DeGeneres
Never underestimate the power of word of mouth. Word of mouth is a driving force that can transform a one-on-one conversation to a one-to-many conversation with the speed of a wildfire.
What causes a wildfire word-of-mouth epidemic? What takes word of mouth from that one-on-one level—where your favorite customer will talk to his neighbor about you over the fence— to that epidemic level, where people you don’t even know are talking about you on Facebook and Twitter? When word of mouth catches, books turn into bestsellers, songs turn into overnight sensations and “ordinary” folks turn into instant celebrities.
Wildfire makes a great analogy for how word-of-mouth turns epidemic. When I was young, one of my summer jobs was to run groceries to fire crews in northern Canada. This gave me the opportunity to see wildfires up close. Yes, they’re a little scary; at the same time they’re amazing forces of nature: great catalysts of change and growth.
The fire boss would always tell me, “Wildfire needs three ingredients—spark, fuel and wind. When you’ve got all three, we need a lot of groceries!” When you have all three, you’re not dealing with a simple brush fire. The wildfire will be massive and beyond anything you can imagine.
In this new information age, ideas, trends, products or activities can start out as a single instance or occurrence and spread with epidemic rapidity into a wildfire.
Spark
spark (n): anything that serves to animate, kindle, or excite
Collins English Dictionary
Nelson Mandela is recognized throughout the world as providing the spark to light the life-changing fire of civil rights. A controversial figure for much of his life, Mandela was denounced as a revolutionary and terrorist by critics due to his anti-apartheid activities, eventually serving more than 25 years in prison. During his time in prison, Mandela was transformed into a leader who played the pivotal role in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.
The roots of Mandela’s influence in Africa started early, with his law practice being one of the few refuges where black South Africans could turn to for help. Mandela first became a household name in Africa in 1952. At the height of apartheid, with significant threat of the Afrikaner government declaring the black African National Congress (ANC) an illegal organization, many of the leaders of the ANC, including Mandela, were under government ban from attending any meetings. Mandela convinced the leadership to draw up a plan allowing the ANC to operate from underground and was given the task of developing a plan.
The plan, which became known as the Mandela Plan, became both the basis for communication and leadership.
Ironically, in solving this problem for the ANC, Mandela became a household name among black South Africans. With communication controlled and little news coming through, a black South African in the 1950s might not know the names of the ANC leaders, but would definitely have heard of the Mandela Plan.
The roots of Mandela’s influence began in the problems he solved: first tactical problems, and later the simple fact that he became the face of resistance to apartheid.
Big spark catches easy. Solve a big problem and the world will listen to your every word.
“Big spark catches easy.
Solve a big problem and the world
will listen to your every word.”
Influential people are visionaries; they are driven by their why, not their what. Influencers define themselves by their vision of making a big difference, not by the mundane of what they do or how they do it. Vision inspires; day-to-day activities do not.
Have you ever made the mistake of thinking that working on a big problem that’s of great significance to others will be too hard? (Perhaps you practice on the little stuff that’s not particularly important to you or anyone else.) Nothing could be further from the truth. The bigger the problem you solve for others, the bigger the service you provide, the more happiness or relief you bring, the easier it is to be the subject of wildfire word of mouth. That’s why the expression, “The bigger the why, the easier the how” has become a popular quote among transformational leaders from Janet Bray Attwood’s book The Passion Test 8. The Passion Test is a great resource if you’re struggling to figure out what to focus on.
Before you start planning your next online campaign or product roll-out, make things easier on yourself. Give yourself a really big spark. Regardless of whether you are creating a global movement or you are a business owner bringing a better product to your local community, if you are truly committed to being of service to others, your influence has the roots it needs to grow.
When I was a teenager growing up in North Bay, Ontario, we all knew the places that were legendary for fast food. Roman Villa makes the best hot banana pepper assorted sub on the planet, the pizza at Greco’s is better than the best of Italy, and, of course, Paul Weber’s burgers are touted with rapt looks of hunger. Every town has a list like this. The North Bay list is remarkable in only one thing: one of these restaurants is a two-hour drive from North Bay.
Paul Weber’s is the subject of urban legend. Paul Weber built a walkway across the four-lane highway so that customers travelling south to Toronto could stop for a burger. The story behind the walkway is spoken of in hushed tones. Stories are told of near misses or actual deaths as rabid burger seekers risked or gave up their lives to cross four lanes of the worst traffic in Canada to enjoy a Paul Weber burger. Need I say more?
The legend has grown to epic proportions.
One fact remains: Paul Weber didn’t want customers risking their lives for a burger. So much so that he was willing to pay substantial dollars for a parking lot across the highway and a skywalk across a four-lane freeway. Customers, inspired by this commitment, continue to create a wildfire epidemic around Weber’s burgers —now an urban legend that has lasted some 30 years.
What’s your fuel? To generate this kind of wildfire word of mouth, your fuel is the level to which you care about your customers, your suppliers and your business allies. How much are you willing to invest in them? The bigger your commitment, the greater your influence.
Pop Quiz
What catches wildfire easier?
a) Big spark
b) Little spark
c) Don’t be silly, I never play with fire
Exercise 4: Make Your Commitment Big and Public
1. Make a list of commitments to those you work with and for. Your commitments can be a policy for customer service, an ethic by which you work or something physical, like a walkway across the highway.
2. Make your word become your world! If you say it, be it! State your commitment loudly and publically—post it on your door, say it often, even create a physical representation of it. Giving your word publically will help you complete your goals, time and again.
3. Once you’ve gone to the mat for those you serve, celebrate your commitment in the media. Create a great story around your success and call a local reporter; write a press release and put it on your website so you can celebrate it for years to come.
Fuel
fuel (n): material such as coal, gas, or oil that is burned to produce heat or power; a thing that sustains or inflames passion, argument, or other intense emotion
Collins English Dictionary
“I have a dream.”
Read those words, and you immediately know I’m quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from one of the most studied and quoted speeches in global history. Newspapers and television media around the world cover that important occasion.
Yet few people remember the first words of that speech. On a whim, I asked several friends, both American and Canadian, what they think the first words of that speech are. Half cannot even venture a guess. Two say “I have a dream.” One guesses, “Four score years ago’....” (which is close to the second statement of the speech “Five score years ago’....”). One person inventively pulls up Google on her iPhone and accurately quotes, “I am happy to join with you today, in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”
Search “Martin Luther King’s I have a dream” on YouTube and watch that speech. You will notice something most people miss, including many of the historians and communications experts who have written long essays on that speech. For the first 11 minutes of that speech, Dr. King reads, purposefully and expertly, from his notes. His words are carefully designed and delivered to paint a clear picture, a clear call to action. Three times he makes a call to action saying “now is the time!” repeatedly calling for peaceful and respectful resistance.
Then at just past 11 minutes something truly magical happens.
Dr. King stops looking at his notes.
His emotional energy shifts and he becomes more grounded than we have ever seen him. Every cell of his being speaks his passion and he begins to speak entirely from the heart. There is no longer a glance at a script in front of him, just words spoken deeply and passionately. His passion is so great that housewives across the world talk about this being the moment they stopped working in the kitchen and walked over to the television set.
“So even though we still face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.”
King uses the phrase “I have a dream” seven more times before the end of the speech. Each sentence produces a vivid image of a reality that is right in front of us all for the taking. An image rooted in passion and belief and freedom.
In the course of a single speech, the world moves.
The fuel in your wildfire is how passionate you are in what you do.
Passion sells.
Passion is infectious.
The greater passion level, the more engaging you are. People are drawn to passion.
The greater your passion, the more likely you’ll be noticed in all forms of media.
“The fuel in your wildfire is how
passionate you are in what you do.”
Do not mistake passion for extroversion. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were both self-acknowledged introverts. Passion is the level of emotion you bring to something. It is not about how loud or how much you speak, but about how committed you are to a positive outcome.
Passion is grounded in your heart.
Authenticity
Being passionate about what you do is a big part of authenticity. Authenticity is something that is frequently talked about these days, though few people define it. Here’s my definition: authenticity is your inner voice saying the same thing as your outer voice.
You can spot a phony a mile away. If your mind is saying, “Oh God, I need this sale,” and your outer voice is saying, “This is a great product you should try,” consider that everyone can spot you for the phony you are.
This is at the root of “The Law of Attraction”: when your emotional state is positive and passionate, people are drawn to you and want to help you. When you are inwardly focused on your own pain, boredom or fear, people are not drawn to you. Consider they may be repelled.
If you don’t passionately love what you do, you have two choices:
1. Find a way to connect with why you love what you do, or
2. Change what you’re doing.
Again, your why comes into play. When you’re clear about why you want to influence change, the more you’re driven by your compelling reason, and the easier you can influence others.
Passion can come in many forms. Though we often think of Martin Luther King Jr. when we speak of passion that ignites, Nelson Mandela is another great example. His passion was quieter, though equally effective. Through tenacity and commitment to a cause, Mandela never gave up on his dream of an apartheid-free South Africa.
Mandela’s passion arose from his willingness to steadfastly stand for human dignity and rights regardless of the consequences. And to persistently become the solution of whatever problem lay in front of him.
What gave this man the strength and wisdom to exclaim, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison”?
Passion is magnetic in all its forms.
Pop Quiz
Which of the following most accurately describes you:
a) You live to work, you so love what you do that you’ll never retire
b) You work to live, you can’t wait to retire some day
c) Shoot me now. I can’t stand the thought of doing this work another day
Answer (a) is the answer that involves the greatest passion and authenticity.