For those of you that don’t know, Daniel Bryan was a “professional” wrestler on WWE. He’s small in stature, got a sweet beard, and the odds were always stacked against him when he wrestled the giant stars like John Cena. Years ago when he was a lesser known entity, he was tagged up with other wrestlers, complained a lot, and was seen as more of comic relief than an effective “wrestler.” Often he started yelling and retorting chants of “no, no, no!” As the obstacles mounted and the comedy continued, people started taking a liking to him. This smaller wrestler, who night in and night came out and wrestled (unlike many of the big “superstars”) started to be seen as the underdog and earned himself a following. The underdog built a network and eventually flipped the audience. He went from a villain “heel” to hero. Instead of no’s, people started saying yes.
Fuzzy Bearded Logic
Bryan is like sourcing and here’s how: We face obstacles every day that drive us into turmoil at times, but sometimes it just takes one person, one conversation, or one conference to change your perspective. He flipped the audience when everyone thought he was a joke. He prevailed and blew peoples’ minds, much like sourcers do every day when we have breakthroughs.
Big moments for me were talking to Steve Levy at a SourceCon Hackathon, Aaron Lintz about Kimono (when it wasn’t dead), and tools guru Dean Da Costa about tools. I also got to see many of the SourceHouston Crew, and share a roundtable unexpectedly with Arron Daniels and Josh Jones, two people who I used to be cubicle neighbors with.
It’s time to Say Yes
Forget everything you may think you know, this is the main event. Connect, talk, tweet, and absorb everything you can from the speakers and the people you sit next to. Many people talk about “disrupting” the recruitment industry, but SourceCon is about innovation. Take the tools, strategies, and stories you learn here and go build your wrestler.
Take healthcare for example. When I first came to SourceCon, I didn’t know much about nursing or scientists or what a flipping medicinal chemist did. I can tell you there are some very insightful people in healthcare that are way more creative than I am, they just don’t see it yet. They still think like I did, that no one is going to want to read their stuff. If you have an idea, don’t say no. Say yes!
An idea, that’s where is starts. That’s the beginning. Write it out, video it, and send it to Shannon Pritchett. Even if it is how this conference or another person made you feel…flood Pritchett’s email with ideas and Blame the #WelcomeWagon: Shannon@ere.net
We are all underdogs, y’all. In fact, I have no idea what I’m doing in the programming sessions, but I feel like I should go and explore. So I’m saying YES because I know people like Glenn and Steven will help us through it. It’s what we do, it’s the circle of sourcing, and you all are a part of the tenth circle of nerds. Welcome to the new reality, where we are going to learn, create, and innovate on a whole other dimensional spectrum.
What you will find is that there are many wonderful human beings out there, and that unicorns are real.
I’ll be talking Sourcing Tools at the roundtable on Tuesday. Come say hello and be prepared for a massive tool drops all over this conference!