The Social Soul

Mastering Your Personal and Professional Brand with Intentionality and Authenticity

Robert Napoli

• Publisher: Winsome Entertainment Group
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781513694689
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Workplace Culture
• Index: Business

The Millenial and GenZ generations understand social media. They have grown up in an age of hyperconnectivity, but many don’t do a great job at understanding or blending their social presence effectively as a tool to show who they are, their why, their value, and the impact they can create as job candidates or as business owners. I call this our Social Soul. It’s how we show our true authentic selves online with intentionality. It shows an individual’s love and passion for what they do, and the value they offer to their various networks of friends, current and potential colleagues, prospective partners, managers, direct reports, or investors. For entrepreneurs, the most effective way to use social selling isn’t obvious, even if they have come of age in a hyperconnected world. This book will educate and inspire readers to take action on the most powerful and useful social networks to date. You will learn through thoughtful examples applicable to future platforms that can be used to better connect in pursuit of entertainment, clients, networking, and business success in a way that translates across cultural borders.

1

SOCIAL OVERSATURATION

“Ask yourself if what you are about to post will add value for users AND your brand.”

— CHARISSE LOUIS

WHAT IS THE SOCIAL SOUL?

What I used to call social selling, I now define as harnessing the power of your Social Soul: the power of engaging and creating intentional content in a truly authentic and transparent way.

The lessons I use in coaching individuals and corporations all start with evaluating and building an authentic online presence. These lessons are just as valuable and applicable to job seekers as they are to serial entrepreneurs. One must understand that, as one of those in my #squad says all the time, “It is not what you know, it is no longer who you know, but is now a matter of WHO KNOWS YOU!” (Larry Long Jr.)

It’s easier to understand when we look back.

TURN OF THE CENTURY

It is certainly an understatement to say that social media has changed our lives. It has transformed our lives in such profound ways. Sometimes it is hard for me to remember what life was like before our world recreated itself on the Cloud. I grew up in the Midwest, specifically in Kansas City. I am just old enough to remember what it was like listening to the radio, to time up a song to record on a cassette for my Walkman, read a newspaper (just the cartoons), and watch videos on the VCR. When we got our first computer and dial-up modem, it was exciting. I hate writing. Even to this day, my handwriting looks like a third grader (but at least I know how to read and write cursive). When getting online then, it was such a new world: learning how to type (took me forever to get used to the home row and type without looking. I was the hunt-and-peck type). I remember my grandma (rest her soul) could never upgrade to using a computer and typed on her typewriter (which I used for many a book report, the struggle was real…) until she passed away in 2007. It was also a challenge getting used to the online language.

I grew up in the hyperconnected world as a Millennial, just barely old enough to relate to Baby Boomers, and at the tail end of Generation X. As a Millennial, we were truly born in a very transitional time between two centuries. One foot was in a world that still valued and honored traditions, especially growing up in the Midwest. The other foot was in the new century world, which started to question, and disrupt, the traditions. As Millennials, we were inspired to keep the traditions we believed and understood and challenge and transform traditions we felt were outdated (a trend we are seeing now). When we examine Generation Z, we have a whole group of folks about to enter the workforce who have never experienced certain traditions or know what it was like to NOT be connected.

Computers have been around since I was born, but the internet did not really happen until I was in high school. I still remember the screeching sound during the dial-up, only to be followed by the comforting sound of the AOL woman’s voice stating, “You’ve Got Mail.” And then, the world wide web was at your fingertips, giving you the ability to discover everything you have ever been interested in… and of course, video games.

I could say I was tech-savvy to some degree. I cannot claim that I was ever a ‘computer nerd’ mostly because I did not have the curiosity or the mathematical brain to learn any type of coding language. At times I struggled to harness the power of technology. There was so much opportunity that I was not tapping into and using. The speed at which technology now changes and evolves is crazy and I now have several GenZer’s on my team whom I can lean on to keep me up to date… and bail me out when I need it. I see firsthand how behind the eightball one can be if they are not on the edge of the ever-evolving digital world. And for the leaders of today, if you are not investing in staying up to date with changes in technology and/or hiring leaders who are, you and your company will not scale at the speed that the leaders of tomorrow will. That is why I wanted to write this book, I have always known that social media would be a game-changer and was an early adopter of new platforms and tools. I used to get made fun of for being the #hashtag king in my group. Even today, many in my social circle are like, “Nap, clip that and post it” so they can re-share and engage (as they don’t want to post themselves).

My real passion was sports and my dream as a child was to be a professional football player in the NFL, or crack into “The Show” as a catcher/first baseman. If you are reading this, then you know that didn’t happen (sigh), but I got the opportunity to continue playing football at the D3 level at Simpson College in the small Iowa town of Indianola. I started out taking classes in sports physiology and athletic training so that I could be in a profession in and around sports. None of the courses turned me on, though. I realized I didn't want to do this my whole life. Yet, the Introduction to Marketing course lit me up.

My professor, Mark Green, was one of those professors that was known to be a hard ass and almost no one earned an A in his class. If you did earn an A in his class, it meant you earned it. Yet, this seemed to be the class that made the biggest impact on me. In his class, the professor had us all watch the TV show Madmen, which had just come out on AMC. I found I had a special affinity for the protagonist, Don Draper who seemed to embody the archetypal professional: his charisma, vision, and ability to see what others didn’t and enthrall them with his will and vision. As the story goes, I did end up in sales and marketing, although it turned out that, unlike Mr. Draper, my values were more aligned to transparency, intentionality, and authenticity. I am still close with my professor to this day. We teamed up when he brought a May term class to Milan and had me back at Simpson to program and teach a May term class on Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Spring of 2021.

After I graduated from college, I knew I did not want to go back to Kansas City, because I didn’t want to live at home. All my friends (and there may have been a girl I liked) were moving to Des Moines, Iowa to start their careers. I found a last-minute job as a recruiter at a Healthcare Staffing firm, then realized I had to move within a week. I grabbed the first apartment I could find, close to where my friends were living, which happened to be on the opposite side of the city from my office.

My onboarding training was watching five hours of video from 1985 (before I was born) on the subject of “How to Become a Recruiter.” Then they handed me a box of resumes, a phone, and a highlighter and it was my job to call professionals and try and pitch them on new opportunities, and then pitch those professionals to hospitals and clinics. My main technology tool …. in 2010… was a fax machine. At this point, Blackberries were all the rage, and you did work on laptops. We had one old school computer to check email (which they didn’t like us using. Why email when you can pick up the phone and fax?) up to three times a day for no more than twenty minutes, plus you had to sign up for it. Crazy right? No, I didn’t stay there long, BUT I learned some skills like how to cold call, hold to connect with people, how to take rejection, how to handle resigning six months after graduating from my first ever ‘real’ job. I call it ‘real’ because to society, it was a real job vs. working in retail or hospitality. However, I think that every job is real if you put in the time, energy, and effort. I spent a total of nine years working in restaurants during high school and college and hated how I got treated… they didn’t know I was going to school to be more. The first rule of being authentic: be a decent human being and treat others the way you want to be treated.

After resigning, I started working on a contract assignment (which taught me how to handle myself in a large corporate environment) for about nine months, until I was laid off. Within my first year of graduating college and entering the professional world in 2010 (on the back of the 2008 financial collapse) I had resigned from a job and had gotten laid off.

But I do believe that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Those who are preparing and speak into intention what they are looking for tend to be luckier. Within a week of being told we were getting laid off (they were giving us thirty days), I received a call, on St. Paddy’s Day no less. I remember vividly because I took that call, for a Recruiter position, in my car in the parking lot while all my friends were at the bar (I immediately joined them after that interview). Two weeks later, I accepted. My first day was on 4/20/17. Thus began a 5-year opportunity in which I became a successful business professional at a nationally renowned IT firm in Des Moines, Iowa. Within five years, I made enough to pay off my debt, buy a house, a car, and play hard (again why I am glad social media wasn’t what it is today). I thought I had it all figured out…. until I didn’t. Shortly after purchasing my first home, a home where I thought I was going to spend considerable time growing into, life put me on a different path. It was the classic boy meets girl story I met the woman of my dreams (who happened to be the younger sister of one of my college best friends). I fell hard. BUT, three months into our relationship, she told me that she was going to Europe to get her master’s degree the following year. I had two options: break up (she didn’t want to do long-distance or drag anything out, OR 2) go with her. The answer… a resounding “HELL YES!” The girl of my dreams, remember? I figured if it didn’t work out, I would have had the opportunity to travel and do something bigger. So, shortly after our one-year dating anniversary, we were on a plane to Milan, Italy to pursue our Master’s degrees.

I attended MIP Graduate School of Business at Politecnico di Milano to pursue a Master-Degree in international Multichannel Marketing. I got the opportunity to coach Professional American Football in Italy for the Milano Seamen and won a Championship with the U-18 squad. Throughout that master’s program, I got to help a technology start-up in Milan increase their sales funnel by redefining our customer segmentation, creating a holistic customer journey, and developing a community on Instagram of people who wanted to tell their stories with that start-up’s product, to great success.

I moved back to the U.S. with that startup to go through an International Accelerator program. By that time, the world of marketing had gone through a rapid evolution with the exponential growth of social media. I discovered just how powerful LinkedIn was as a great networking tool. I had been leveraging LinkedIn since its early days and building my “professional” network but was not truly leveraging it. It was in NYC that I discovered tons of people from my childhood days in Kansas City, my football alma mater, Des Moines, and Milan all of whom were now in New York .

I knew from the consulting jobs I held in New York what my value was: helping entrepreneurs and founders grow their brand and businesses through thoughtfully researched new hires, thoughtful and authentic networking, and thoughtful sales marketing that used shared stories of value. After working as a business recruiter and start-up consultant in New York for a few years, I was fired. It was then I decided to start my own business.

The leader that let me go did so because he knew I wasn’t passionate about his business, and he knew that I needed to explore my entrepreneurial journey. He gave me severance and said, “Rob, take this and start your business.” He reiterated that I was destined for a bigger journey.

I did just that, but I didn’t start just one business… I decided to start two: one teaming up with one of my best mates in NYC and one on my own. Thus, the biggest lessons, challenges, and growth began. I turned my networking/recruiting background into intentionally tapping into this amazing value-added network I had built. I went from just sharing things I was working on and events I attended to sharing my journey – the ups and downs, wins and losses, mindset, leadership, and all things that I was passionate about. I started a weekly #RobNapRecap where I shared about things I was working on or lessons I learned. I launched my podcast The Bear Necessities of Entrepreneurship to talk with and learn from all the amazing entrepreneurs in my network. During the 2020 shutdown, like many, I started getting involved on Clubhouse and speaking in different rooms. I even launched a TikTok channel (something I was afraid to do) at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021.

SCROLLING TO SLEEP

I imagine every person reading this book, no matter if you are a Millennial, Boomer, or Gen Z, is well adjusted to the world of social media and on multiple platforms. For many, it has become an addiction – constantly checking our phones to see how many likes and comments we get. I am sure, at some point, you picked up your phone to check it and the next thing you know it's an hour later and you're still scrolling through TikToks or Reels or whatever.

I’ve been there. The nature of interpersonal relationships, conducting business, and entertainment have been radically altered since the advent of social media. At first, it seemed like social sites such as Myspace, and later Facebook, gave individuals the creative space to present themselves in transparent ways. It gave us access to create a bigger network and share our true selves – or so we thought. As social media became more embedded in our lives, the boundaries between personal and professional became blurry. Now, we have a hard time determining if what we see is intentional and authentic, or just a mask that others want us to see.

At this point in history, there are over 3.5 billion social media users in the world (Emarsys, 2019). That is almost half of all people on planet Earth. Most people have both personal and professional profiles in the social media sphere. With the advent of mobile devices and the development of Apps, most of our daily life is dictated by our mobile devices. We wake up to the alarm on our mobile device, order our food on apps, pay our bills on apps, and fall asleep scrolling through Facebook, looking at how cute our friends’ kids are. Much of our work can be conducted on mobile devices, and much of our relationship building and selling takes place in the social space over several platforms.

With the advent of the ‘social influencer,’ we are inundated 24/7 with videos, graphic memes, and photos designed to shape our perspectives and sell through editorialized content about the lifestyle of the influencer. This can be superficial as in styles and trends, as well as prophetic as in social movements. The world of advertising always has and continues to leverage platforms and the fame of celebrities to pitch products. The distinction with social media influencers is that they do not overtly sell anything, but rather make their personal life become the vehicle for people to want to emulate (whether that is real or not). Nevertheless, social influencers are entrepreneurs who have a magnified Social Soul and learn how to leverage it for success.

The key to social selling is to not sell, but rather to ENGAGE and create a valued network that is eager to engage and interact with authentic content and intentionally become a part of the virtual community. When I discovered the value in engaging, intentionally, with the valued network I had built, everything changed. This is, in my opinion, the greatest asset for business success, a VALUE-ADDED NETWORK. It is no longer a bonus to have a community or ecosystem...it is a NECESSITY!

At this time, I morphed from the vision of a Madman and Seller to an intentional Social Engager. I let my Social Soul shine through conversation, interaction, and support, creating valuable connections and building social equity.

SOCIAL SOUL TRIBES

When I first entered the world of social media through MySpace, Facebook, and Zynga, people tended to stay within their respective groups or clicks. Whether sports, arts, political alignments, religious or spiritual shared interests, or hometown news – people felt comfortable hanging out with those who they could relate to, whether in person or virtual. While this is good, it causes us to live in an echo chamber. As I grew into the networking world, I realized I needed to expand into other groups to make more connections, learn, and grow. It wasn’t until I moved to Italy that I realized if I was going to truly stay connected, grow, and scale, I needed to start thinking about using my social platforms for business. I started focusing on connecting with people I met, yes, but also started following and connecting with those I wanted to learn from. I would look at different companies and business fields and connected with folks there to follow their content and get a better understanding of the skills needed.

By doing this, I discovered people like to befriend those that share a common mindset and interest in success. This felt like an invitation to build the valued network that today has brought me much business success. Many of my closest relationships and a big portion of my “personal board of advisors,” or those that I have met through building a value-added network, and many I have yet to meet in person as I write this book. For example, a GenZ’er friend of mine, Marco Scannavino, CoFounder of uLead, shared this tip that has helped him grow (and at some point, find a job) and gave him a strong experience on platforms like LinkedIn:

Go on “search” and type the company you would love to work for: NFL, Juventus, Netflix, Gucci, you name it.

• And literally, #add every person in that list working in the field of your interest (marketing, sales, finance) for that specific company.
• <<<Add a note. Always.>>>
• And invite them to have a virtual coffee.
• Ask them how they started their career there.
• Ask if they currently offer...

Table of contents

• PRAISE FOR THE SOCIAL SOUL
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• FOREWORD
• INTRODUCTION
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• RECOMMENDED READING / RESOURCES