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If youve ever been passed over for a promotion, you may have questioned the quality of your work. The other candidate probably had better experience, right? But what if the answer is that you simply werent top of mind. Instead of focusing exclusively on building a résumé, how much time do you focus on how youre perceived? A lot of people think that heads-down good work will speak for itself, says Lorraine K. Lee, author of Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career. Then there are people who are thoughtful about how they’re seen, but they’re not being seen by the right people in the right places. Both can be career killers. Lee says she struggled with this earlier in her career. I worked on really high-profile projects, she says. I was well liked by my peers. As hard as I pushed, I could not figure out how to get promoted and how to get seen as a leader. What was missing was presence, Lee says. A lot of things compete for our attention. In order to stand out, we have to be unforgettable. We have to be really intentional with our presence. Lee started paying attention to how and where she was seen. She became more thoughtful about how she led meetings, communicated on Slack and Teams, and showed up in a room or on video. All these different factors are what make you unforgettable, she says. It’s not just about having certain charisma or gravitas; its how you can optimize each of those things. An Unforgettable Brand Being memorable starts with your personal brand. When people think ‘personal brand, they often think, That makes me feel slimy or I’m not a company, says Lee, who is an instructor for Stanford Continuing Studies and LinkedIn Learning. We already have a brand, and our brand is essentially our reputation. A brand is made up of four key factors, which Lee calls your EPIC frameworkexperiences, personality, identity, and community. First, consider personal and professional life experiences that make you who you are today. This includes any life events that have influenced you and that make your story memorable and unique. Your personality also factors into your brand. For example, Lee says her brand includes the fact that shes introverted. Some might be more serious, some more playful, she explains. Different aspects of our personality make us ‘us.’ Next is your identity, which consists of your cultural background and the values that you live by when you work, Lee says. For example, I am someone who really values relationships. I’m also someone who wants to be known for following through on what I say I’m going to do,” she adds. “My Asian American cultural background is also a part of my identity. Finally, the fourth piece is your community. A lot of people forget about or don’t think about community, Lee says. You can think you have the best brand in the world, but if others are not seeing you as a leader or not seeing you as ready to get that promotion, there’s a disconnect. Mentors and sponsors are an important part of your community. Mentors will coach you and share their own experiences, while sponsors advocate for you. Sponsors say your name when you’re not in the room, explains Lee. They open doors for you. Finding a sponsor who can help lift you up and carry you along with them as they ascend in a company is really critical. A lot of us get over-mentored and under-sponsored. An Unforgettable Introduction Once youre intentional about your brand, showcase it by having a unique and powerful introduction, or UPI. Lee noticed that people often introduce themselves at meetings or on calls by saying their name, job title, and company. Introductions are one of the most important situations in which we can create a strong impression and presence, but so many people let this opportunity pass them by, Lee says. You want your introduction to be a launching point for someone to learn more about you or know how they can turn to you in the future. For example, when Lee worked at Prezi, she would introduce herself by saying, Hi, I’m Lorraine. I lead the editorial team at Prezi. A unique and powerful introduction expands that information, giving the other person a more holistic understanding of the value you provide. It can include your target audience, success metrics and goals, a fun fact, or a high-level view of what you do day-to-day. Depending on the person shes meeting and the context of the interaction, Lee might introduce herself by saying, I’m Lorraine. I lead the editorial team at Prezi. What that means is that I collaborate with business leaders and keynote speakers to create educational content for hundreds of thousands of business professionals. Even that little tweak with a little bit more information gives the person I’m speaking to a better understanding of what it is I do, Lee says. I come across as more authoritative and confident as well. Being intentional about our introductions and including a little bit more information than what we are normally accustomed to goes a long way. Not paying attention to presence can stall a career, Lee adds. You stay stuck with where you are. If someone’s not looking to advance, it may be fine at that point in their career. But for the people who do want to reach that next level, it’s really hard if you arent intentional about your presence.
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E-Commerce
A viral clip of a woman scrolling on a completely clear phone with no user interface briefly confusedand amusedthe internet. But the truth turned out to be far more literal than most expected. Originally posted to TikTok by user CatGPT, the video quickly racked up over 52.9 million views. In the comments, some speculated it was a Nokia model; others guessed it came from the Nickelodeon show Henry Danger. @askcatgpt Completely clear phone spotted in San Francisco on May 14?!? Wtf?????? Link in bio for more deets. (NOT SPONSORED) original sound – CatGPT This looks like a social commentary or a walking art exhibit. Im too uncultured to understand, one user commented. It’s from a Black Mirror episode, another wrote. Turns out, it was none of the above. Just a piece of plastic. The woman seen in line is also the one who uploaded the clip. In a follow-up video posted days later, she shared the true story. This is a Methaphone, she explains. It is exactly what it looks like, a clear piece of acrylic shaped like an iPhone. The “device” was invented by her friend as a response to phone addiction. He told me that what he wanted to test was, if were all so addicted to our phones, then could you potentially curb somebodys addiction by replacing the feeling of having a phone in your pocket with something that feels exactly the same? she continued. This little piece of acrylic feels like a physical artifact that directly responds to this collective tension we all feel about how our devices, which are meant to make us more connected, are actually having the exact opposite effect. A 2023 study by Reviews.org found that nearly 57% of Americans reported feeling addicted to their phones. Some admitted to checking their phones over 100 times a day, and 75% said they feel uneasy when they realize theyve left their phone at home. In the comments, many questioned whether pretending to scroll on a chunk of plastic could actually help with phone addiction. This sounds like [an] SNL sketch, one user wrote. What stage of capitalism is this? another asked. Some were simply disappointed it wasnt a real phone. Despite the skepticism, the Methaphone raised $1,100 on Indiegogo. The campaign has since closed, though the creator says more may be produced if demand is high. Priced at $20, with a neon pink version going for $25, the Methaphone looks like a simple acrylic slaband it is, the page reads. But it’s also a stand-in, a totem, and an alibi. It’s the first step on the road to freedom.
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E-Commerce
Michael Long is not the typical neuroscience guy. He was trained as a physicist, but is primarily a writer. He coauthored the international bestseller The Molecule of More. As a speechwriter, he has written for members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, presidential candidates, and Fortune 10 CEOs. His screenplays have been performed on most New York stages. He teaches writing at Georgetown University. Whats the big idea? Dopamine is to blame for a lot of your misery. It compels us to endlessly chase more, better, and greatereven when our dreams have come true. Thanks to dopamine, we often feel restless and hopeless. So no, maybe its not quite accurate to call it the happiness molecule, but it has gifted humans some amazing powers. Dopamine is the source of imagination, creativity, and ingenuity. There are practical ways to harness the strengths of our dopamine drives while protecting and nurturing a life of consistent joy. Below, Michael shares five key insights from his new book, Taming the Molecule of More: A Step-by-Step Guide to Make Dopamine Work for You. Listen to the audio versionread by Michael himselfin the Next Big Idea App. 1. Dopamine is not the brain chemical that makes you happy. Dopamine makes you curious and imaginative. It can even make you successful, but a lot of times it just makes you miserable. Thats because dopamine motivates you to chase every new possibility, even if you already have everything you want. It turns out that brain evolution hasnt caught up with the evolution of the world. For early humans, dopamine ensured our survival by alerting us to anything new or unusual. In a world with danger around every corner and resources hard to acquire, we needed an early warning system to motivate us even more. Dopamine made us believe that once we got the thing we were chasing, wed be safer, happier, or more satisfied. That served humans well, until it didnt. Now that weve tamed the world, we dont need to explore every new thing, but dopamine is still on duty, and it works way out of proportion to the needs of the modern world. Since self-discipline has a short shelf life, I share proven techniques that dont rely on willpower alone. 2. Dopamine often promises more than reality can deliver. When we have problems obsessing with social media or the news, or when were doing excessive shopping, we feel edgy and restless. This is because dopamine floods us with anticipation and urgency. We desperately scroll for the next hit, searching for the latest story or watching the porch for that next Amazon package. As this anticipation becomes a normal way of living, the rest of life starts to feel dull and flat. That restarts the cycle of chasing what we think will make us happy. Then we get it, and when it doesnt make us happy, we experience a letdown, and that makes us restless all over again. Heres how that works for love and romance. When we go on date after date and cant find the right person, or a long-term relationship gets stale, we start to feel hopeless. The dopamine chase has so raised our expectations about reality that we no longer enjoy the ordinary. Now were expecting some perfect partner, and we wont find them because they dont exist. Fight back with three strategies: Rewire your habits to ditch the chase. Redirect your focus to the here and now. Rebuild meaning so life feels more like it matters. I describe specific ways to do this through simple planning, relying more on friendships, and doing a particular kind of personal assessment. And theres even a little technology involved that you wouldnt expect. 3. Dopamine is the source of imagination. The dopamine system has three circuits. The first has only a little to do with behavior and feeling, so well set that one aside. The second circuit (that early warning system) is called the desire dopamine system because it plays on our desires. The third system is very different. Its called the control system, and it gives us an ability straight out of science fiction: mental time travel. You can create in your mind any possible future in as much detail as you like and investigate the results without lifting a finger. We do this all the time without realizing thats what it is. Little things like figuring out where to go for lunch: We factor in traffic, how long well have to wait for a table and think over the menu, and game it all out to decide where to go. But this system also lets us imagine far more consequential mental time travel, figuring out the best way to build a building, design an engine, or travel to the moon. Dopamine really is the source of creativity and analytical power that allows us to create the future. The dopamine control circuit lets us think in abstractions and play out various plans using only our minds. That means not only can we imagine a particular future, but we can also imagine entire abstract disciplines, come to understand them, and make use of them in the real world based on what we thought about. Fields like chemistry, quantum mechanics, and number theory exist because of controlled dopamine. Dopamine really is the source of creativity and analytical power that allows us to create the future. Dopamine brings a lot of dissatisfaction to the modern world, but we wouldnt have the modern world without dopamine. 4. Youre missing out on the little things. When my best friend died at age 39, the speaker at his funeral said, You may not remember much of what you did with Kent, but its okay, because it happened. I did not know what that could mean, but years later, while writing this book, I got it. We dont live life just to look back on it. The here and now ought to be fun. You may not remember it all, but while its happening, enjoy it. That requires fighting back against dopamine because its always saying: Never mind whats in front of you; think about what might be. When Warren Zevon was at the end of his life, David Letterman asked him what hed learned. Warren said, Enjoy every sandwich. 5. A satisfying life requires meaning, and theres a practical way to find it. Even if you fix every dopamine-driven problem in your life, you may still feel like something is missing. To find a satisfying balance between working for the future and enjoying the here and now, we must choose a meaning for life and work toward it as we go. If youre making life better for others with something you do well and enjoy, the days feel brighter and life acquires purpose. Is it possible to live in the moment, anticipate the future, and have it add up to something? The psychiatrist Viktor Frankl said we need to look beyond ourelves, because thats where a sense of purpose begins. Aristotle gave us a simple formula for taking pleasure in the present, finding a healthy anticipation for the future, and creating meaning. He said its found where three things intersect: what we like to do, what were good at, and what builds up the world beyond ourselves. Things like working for justice, making good use of knowledge, or simply living a life of kindness and grace. What you do with your life doesnt have to set off fireworks, and you dont have to make history. You can be a plumber, a mail carrier, or an accountant. Im a writer. I like what I do. I seem to be pretty good at it, and it helps people. The same can be true if you repair the highway, fix cars, or serve lunch in a school cafeteria. If youre making life better for others with something you do well and enjoy, the days feel brighter and life acquires purpose. Life needs meaning, and thats the last piece of the puzzle in dealing with dopamine and taming the molecule of more. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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E-Commerce
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