Screw Making A New Year’s Resolution. Just Pick A Word.
It’s that time of year, where everyone is talking about their New Year’s resolutions. Not me. I say, don’t complicate your life with a resolution you won’t keep. Just pick a word. I do this and I make that word my theme for the entire year.
Past words have included AMPLIFY, DISRUPTION, INNOVATION, and COMMUNITY. Everything I do that year revolves around that word. It keeps me focused and on target with personal and professional goals. How do I pick a word? I base it on what’s trending but also what’s relevant in my life at that moment.
The year my word was AMPLIFY, we had to increase SAP’s small business social media presence. This meant building up followers and creating interesting content. Content people wanted to read, share and amplify. Internally, we created the program, Amp It Up! to help with these efforts. And guess what? It worked. We increased our followers by 40%.
When I chose DISRUPTION, we strove to break with traditional marketing tactics. Do things different. The phrase we used over and over again was “Disrupt what you know to innovate and grow.” We included social media influencers in the Amp It Up! program and dabbled in live-streaming. All these efforts culminated in a major campaign for SAP, #SB50Disrupt.
For the word, INNOVATION, we incorporated the latest tech into our marketing efforts. We experimented with live-streaming weekly shows and also SAP events. We incorporated social media influencers and used our Amp It Up! program to amplify all our efforts. We grew our social media followers and people began to think differently about SAP. A nice bonus was being nominated by my peers and winning our CMO H1 Innovator Award.
In 2017, my word was COMMUNITY. Our task was to build a small and midmarket business thought leadership community. A place where people can share their challenges and successes of growing a business. The result was the Growth Matters Network. We built the site in a couple months (no small feat). And we incorporate innovative and disruptive content that we amplify through our social channels. I can’t wait to share what we’ll be doing in 2018!
As you can see, the words I choose don’t fade in the background when the year ends. They build on each other and become a constant.
So, what is my word for 2018?
Drum roll, please…
PASSION
If you know me, this word might seem self-evident as I’m a passionate person. But this year, I’m going to hold myself accountable and ensure I bring passion to EVERYTHING I do. Infuse passion into how I AMPLIFY, DISRUPT, INNOVATE and build COMMUNITY at SAP. And ensure those I collaborate with feel passionate about what we’re doing and in turn bring passion to their own work. Hopefully, we’ll create a domino effect that helps everyone succeed.
And in true Ally McBeal fashion (if you’re not in the know, Google it), I also have a theme song:
According to the songwriter, Aaron Bruno, “When all else is taken away, as long as your passion remains, anything is still possible. Passion is about finding the balance that can lift both you and those around you to make the world a more positive place.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Passion produces an energy that fuels this journey I call life. I hope you’ll follow my journey to infuse passion into everything I do and that I’ll blow your mind.