revu 2014 final manifesto

8/10/2019 Revu 2014 Final Manifesto

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THEARTOFREVOLUTIONDONT JUST BUILD A BUSINESS,

START A REVOLUTION

J O N A T H A N F I E L D S

Tese ideas, sourced & assembled so uniquely and brilliantly,strike me as crucial new thinking for our time. -Gary Goldstein,

Producer of Pretty Woman, CEO Te Goldstein Companies


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WHAT IM ABOUTTO SHARE WAS

NEVERSUPPOSED TO

BE PUBLIC


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It began as a personal research project,exploring how mass movements, revolutions,evangelist organizations and charismatic leaderscapture the hearts and minds of millions andmove them to action.

I was on a hunt for patterns. To see if there wasa way to integrate all these worlds. To create a

roadmap that could fuel not only social causesand movements, but launch bodies of work,businesses, products, brands and careers with thespeed and power of a revolution.

Because, if you could do this, then you couldnot only launch or grow a venture exponentiallyfaster and with a fraction of resources, you could

massively expand reach and impact globally. Theholy grail of launch and growth hacking.

I looked at everything from faith to felons,ministers to misfits, icons to infiltrators. I becameobsessed with the way ideas and actions rippleinto the collective consciousness, fueling mass

numbers of people to action.

I mined the language of influence, socialdynamics, social-technology, mega-churchevangelism, cultural anthropology, corporateculture and story-architecture. Then integratedwhat I learned with my experience as a lifelongmaker, entrepreneur, artist, community builder

and student of language, influence and writing.

At a certain point, a new way to fit all the puzzlepieces together began to emerge. And acoherent, powerful and robust Framework forNonviolent Consumer Revolution took form.

As this was all happening in secret, a friendwho was a conference organizer asked me togive a keynote at an event he was running. Itwas an invite-only gathering of 80 of the most-accomplished health and medical visionaries,educators and CEOs on the planet. No cameras,no recording, this was about two-days of rawtruth and breakthrough ideas.

DONT JUST BUILD A BUSINESS,

START A REVOLUTION

THE CRAZY BACK-STORY

2014 Jonathan Fields | All rights reserved. Learn to start your own revolution @ RevolutionU.biz/tell-me-more
http://www.revolutionu.biz/tell-me-morehttp://www.revolutionu.biz/tell-me-more


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WHATHAPPENEDNEXTCHANGED

EVERYTHING.

With a fair amount of reluctance, I offeredto talk about what Id been working on.Why the reluctance? Because this was neversupposed to be public. It was for my own

edification and application. Id already putjust a few elements of the framework intoaction and seen powerful results.

A few months later, I found myself standingin front of those 80 sets of genius eyes.Nervous as hell. These were people whocould not be snowed. They represented

billions of dollars of revenue, revolutionaryideas, and millions of people served on aglobal scale.

As I spoke, heads were down and peoplewere furiously writing. There was almostno audience engagement. Kiss of deathfor a speaker. I thought I was bombing. Iwondered if they thought I was just some

lunatic with a radical idea. The one thingI did know was that theyd never heardanything like it. When I finished, the roomremained silentthen erupted. After a fastand fierce Q&A, I walked out of the room toclear my head.

What the hell just happened?


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I passed a man gesticulating wildly and pantinginto his phone.He grabbed me as I passed andshouted into the phone, this is the guy, yes, hes

here right in front of me. Then to me

That was astonishing, Im on the phone withmy business partner, were rebuilding our entirecompany around your framework!

What? But, its not even complete yet?!

Over the next two days, a parade of similar

conversations ensued with physicians, foundersand CEOs. Ive been writing and speaking foryears in front of audiences of all sizes. And, in allthat time, Ive never received anything like theresponse that one talk generated.

Someone in the audience was running aconference in Vegas the next week and asked me

to fly down to give the same talk. I did. This time,the audience ranged from activists to artists andcorporate titans to educators. Same exact result.Ive since shared it a few more times as a keynote.Every time, the same thing happens. Peoplewont let me out of the room (which is just a weebit uncomfortable for this introvert). They want

learn more, to go deeper. And they want help.

And, the big question, the one everyone asks

over and over is

What are you DOING with this?

My answer at first, nothing, its for me. This wasnever supposed to be a public thing. End ofstory.

You cant DO that, came the replies, I dont

think you realize what youve stumbled upon.

Still I resisted. Seriously I answered, theresnothing all that revolutionary about this. Of thecore elements in the framework, I didnt createa single one. All I did was see a way to put themtogether. Plus, this isnt my THING, Im buildingmy own venture. I dont have time to make it my

thing.Again, came the reply.

You cant walk away from this, it needs to beshared.

To which Id answer, Just watch me.

D

ONTJUSTBUILD

ABUSINESS,

STARTAREVOLUTION



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But that one line began to haunt me. You cantwalk away from this. I kept coming back to it.

And, so finally, I relented. I decided to share it asan experiment with a limited number of people ina private webinar at the end of 2013. I announcedthe webinar. Twenty-four hours later, nearly 2,500signed up and I freaked out. We added an overflowwebinar the next morning, because my webinarsystem only has 1,000 lines. In a matter of hours,another thousand signed up for that.

After the webinars, the reaction was the same. And

I started to realize there was something biggergoing on here. My whole team felt it.

This was never supposed to have been a thing,we say. And yet, here we are

The manifesto that follows is an edited andexpanded version of that first webinar. It reveals

the full 18-element Framework for NonviolentConsumer Revolution; a methodology that tapsthe power of revolutions and movement dynamics,blends them with story-architecture, response

messaging and social technology to potentiallylaunch a career, body-of-work, brand, business,product or idea exponentially faster, and with afraction of the resources and effort.

But I do have one ask.

Its free. But it is to be used for good, not for evil.Like I said in the beginning, this was not created

with the intent of anyone ever seeing it but me. So, Iwas never concerned with how people might use it.

With my decision to share it, though, its somethingI now have to consider. In fact, after each of thekeynotes where Ive shared the framework, Ivebeen asked by audience members what if thewrong people get their hands on this?

BUT THAT ONE LINE BEGAN TO HAUNT ME.

I KEPT COMING BACK TO IT.

YOU CANT WALK AWAY FROM THIS.



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My answer is twofold

One, the framework alone is neither good nor evil.Its all about the intent of the people who wield its

power.

And two, the wrong peoplefrom dictators towarlords and cult leaders to institutions that seekto disempowerhave already figured out a lot ofit. They use it every day to build vast movementsof darkness.

If anything, Im hoping to provide the forces oflightpeople like YOUwith a roadmap to buildyour own path, movement, business, venture orbody of work that provides an alternative path.One that not only fuels your vision and venture,but inspires, supports and empowers people toconnect and come alive. That creates benevolentengines of belonging and belief. Because, theworld needs that right now.

With gratitude,

Jonathan


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MY INCITING INCIDENT

Tunisia. December 17, 2010. Twenty-six year-oldfruit merchant, Mohammed Bouazizi walks out into

the street and lights himself on fire in protest tooppression and harassment. This incident incitesdeep emotion and mass response. Thousands ofpeople take to the streets. Protests begin aroundthe country, global media takes note and less than amonth later, the Tunisian regime falls.

It is a stunning moment on so many levels. But,

what happens next takes the world by surpriseand by storm.

Tunisia becomes the Middle Easts Roger Bannister.Bannister was the first person to break the four-minute mile running. Until he did, it was alwaysassumed that human beings simply could not run thatfast. Bannister proved everyone wrong and, in doingso, made the impossible possible. But heres whereit got really interesting. In the years after he ran thefirst-ever sub-4-minute mile, dozens of others do thesame. Because the thing that was stopping themwasnt as much physiological as it was psychological.In a heartbeat, the belief system within the globalcommunities of milers changed. Assumptionsabout limitations were shattered and that inspiredmassive action.


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This same thing happened in the wake ofthe Tunisian uprising. People living under thedark cloud of oppression outside Tunisia saidif it happened there, maybe it can happenhere. Tunisia became the inciting incident fora revolution of revolutions. Uprisings brokeout in an expanding wave of countries. Somesuccessful, some not. Some still ongoing.Looking back, the world calls this the ArabSpring, a series of mass revolutions that wouldeventually change profoundly the face and eventhe geography of entire countries and millions of

peoples lives.

Watching this unfold, I was filled with emotion.So much pain intertwined with hope andevolution and power and transformation.I became fascinated by the raw power ofmovements and revolutions. By their ability toeffervesce around a touch point and a message,

to rally large numbers of people to action. Toaffect change on a mass scale in a stunninglyshort period of time. I was mesmerized bythe phenomenon and its potential impact thehuman condition. But, at the same time, theentrepreneur in me, the founder and maker andseeker, began to ask a different, more narrowly-drawn question:

D

ONTJUSTBUILD

ABUSINESS,

STARTAREVOLUTION

CAN THE CORE IDEALS OFPOLITICAL REVOLUTION BEAPPLIED IN A CONSUMERCONTEXT, SO THAT YOUBOTH EMPOWER LARGENUMBERS OF PEOPLE ANDAT THE SAME TIME GROWA BUSINESS, BRAND ORBODY-OF-WORK?

Or to put it another way, can you swap politicaldefiance for consumer defiance? Or, woulddoing this so bastardize the process of whatmovements and revolutions are about that it justwouldnt work?



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On one level, this started as a personal

project and a deep interest.But it becamepretty clear that if you could tap the powerof movements and revolutions to launch orgrow a venture, the benefits could be game-changing. Youd gain the power to leverage:

A virtual army of consumers and leadersand evangelists working for the cause

A shared sense of ownership in theoutcome that fuels massive, sustainedaction

The ability to scale reach, income andimpact at a fraction of the cost

The ability to scale reach, income andimpact exponentially faster

A highly-motivated community working todo amazing things.

Most importantyoud get to buildsomething that empowers mass numbersof people to join together, make somethingextraordinary happen and create their ownnew realities. To build not just a businessbut an auto-expanding engine of growthand impact.

WHY DO YOU CARE?


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THE SECRET STRATEGIST

DONT JUST BUILD A BUSINESS


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It turns out,when you want to find out aboutnonviolent revolution theory and dynamics,all roads point to an 86-year-old University ofMassachusetts Dartmouth Professor Emeritus of

political science named Gene Sharp. Sharp hasspent his entire professional life studying thedynamics of non-violent political revolution. About30 years ago, he distilled his ideas into a processand released them to the world in a book calledFrom Dictatorship to Democracy.

In that mini-treatise, he laid out the critical elements

and dynamics of nonviolent political revolution.And he shared why non-violent revolution veryoften is far more effective than any type of violentrevolution. He also shared 198 forms of nonviolentresistance, incredibly powerful. Nearly everyrevolution in the last 30 years has used FromDictatorship to Democracyas a guidebook.

Powerful information, but still, the huge question

lingered. Can Sharps work be adapted tosupport a non-violent consumer revolution?Can it rally people to help launch an album, anevent, a brand, a product or an entire company,then fuel rapid growth, sales, expansion andimpact?The answer is yes, but it needs to be bothadapted and complimented by other fields ofknowledge, for a few reasons.

One, Sharps methodology is more aboutdisintegrating the current regime than detailinghow and what to build in its place. This makessense in the political realm, each culture and

dynamic is so radically different, it is exceedinglydifficult to provide universal guidance for durabledemocracy that applies across all cultures andgeographies. In fact, one of the lessons fromrevolutions, and we see it in the Arab Spring, is thatbuilding a better future is often a far harder processthan tearing down an oppressive current reality.

On the business, entrepreneurial or commercialside, even when its cause-driven, we have a fairlystrong set of processes that guide us in buildingwhat we want to create or moving large numbers ofpeople to a better experience that already exists.Sharps ideas dont speak to this.

Two, emergence of social technology as anorganizing tool, action catalyst and message

accelerant is a game-changer for both politicalrevolution AND for business and artistic revolution.But, only if you deeply understand its capabilities,limitations and ethos and tap it in a way that allowsyou to ride the wave, rather than get pummeledby it.

Three, messaging and story-architecture is a critical


START A REVOLUTION2014 Jonathan Fields | All rights reserved. Learn to start your own revolution @ RevolutionU.biz/tell-me-more


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piece of the puzzle. In political revolution,it tends to emerge more organically, thestory and rally-cry are fairly self-evident.In a commercial context, it can be equallypowerful, but often requires more effort to craftdeliberately. There is an assumption of purermotivation on the geo-political stage. But inthe world of business, art, performance or for-purpose ventures, the why becomes muchmore suspect since the end goal eventually willinvolve money changing hands. So you needto be far more deliberate in how you tell your

story to ensure you are not perceived as beingin any way opportunistic or predatory.

And, four, most obviously, Sharps methodologyis about regime change. It wasnt aboutcommercial endeavors. Truth is, I wonderedwhether that single difference would makeall the tenets of revolutions and movements

unavailable or ineffective. Turns, out, theanswer is no. Sharps ideas can not onlybe applied in this new realm, they can bemassively effective. But, you need to adapt andexpand upon them, you need to bring them tolife differently.


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Building on this foundation, I began to utterlygeek out. Im that oddball who latches on tochannels of interest and explores them fiercely.Over the last two decades, these areas ofexploration have included entrepreneurship,influence and the psychology of language andbehavior-change, story-architecture, response-

marketing, social dynamics and technology andevangelist growth mechanics. I know, like I said,total dork, but Im somewhat obsessed with whypeople do what they do.

I began to bring my experience in these worldsinto the quest to develop a robust frameworkfor nonviolent consumer revolution. And, overtime, patterns began to emerge. Data points from

worlds I never thought would collide began toform a powerful mosaic. And a new methodologywas born.

In the beginning it was entirely for me to apply, tomy own ventures. But once I showed it to people,the response was, this is larger than you. It can notonly help a lot of businesses, but a lot of causes,foundations, artists and makers and other for-purpose ventures. Put another way, it needs to beshared.

The framework is still a work in progress. My guessis this will always be true. I will constantly beresearching, testing and refining it. But even in itscurrent state, there is power in the application of

even select elements of it.

In the pages that follow, youll learn the 18elements. You dont necessarily have to have everysingle one in place to get tremendous benefit.The more you integrate, the more powerful thepotential compounding effect, and the more likelyyoull be to experience the potential for profoundoutcomes.

A NEW FRAMEWORKFOR CONSUMERREVOLUTION EMERGES



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ONWARDTHEN

To tap the power of revolutions, you first

need to define what I call your revolutionaryavatar or RA. Who is that person whois going to join the revolution, becomean advocate, a participant, a consumer,a listener, viewer or co-creator, a deeplycommitted member and potentially evenbecome a leader that helps grow this venturefar beyond you? This is a step that almost

everybody skips, because its hard work.Skipping it, though, is a near death knell toyour ability to succeed. Because you cannoteffectively serve, speak to or rally someoneif you dont understand (a) who they are,(b) what they care about, (c) whats wrong,(d) what they fear, and (e) where theydlove to go.

Defining your RA allows you to betterunderstand what people need and how togive it to them or create it for them. It alsolets you speak to that person in a powerful,direct, relevant way. Like youre in his head,you already know what he needs. And italso does one other thing, it helps ensure

1 REVOLUTION AVATAR: WHO ISYOUR REVOLUTION SERVING?


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youre truly connected to your RA, you care aboutthem. Very often, because they are you. Whenyou have that, people will feel your authenticity

and your ability to truly connect and serve goesup exponentially.

So, who is this person you seek to serve and rally tojoin with others to solve a bigger problem? Wheredoes she live? Whats her mindset? What does shethink about? What is her life like? What are herneeds or aspirations, hopes, desires? This takesserious work to be able to do it effectively, but if

you dont do this work, almost everything else thatyou try and do will fail. Without a well-defined RAas your starting point, your ability to serve, messageand rally the right person at the right time in theright way will be left largely to luck.

Defining your RA applies in fields that might notbe so apparent.

This applies whether youre an artist or anentrepreneur. What might happen if you wentbeyond just creating in a vacuum and hopingsomeone will like what youve made? What ifyou really took the time to understand whatdrives the people you most seek to connect with,touch, inspire or uplift? Who will join your army oflisteners? What are their lives like? What makes

them who they are? What draws them to you andwhat you create? What will draw them to eachother? Are they freaks? White-shoed toe-tappers?

Metal-heads? Hipsters? What are their lives like?Understanding these things is the differencebetween putting on a show and building aconnected, mission-driven community. The latteris where the true power lies.

An interesting, non-traditional case-study is RickWarren, the founder of Saddleback Church. Warren

dropped into the middle of nowhere in SouthernCalifornia and said, Im going to start a church.Rather than just showing up and hanging out andbuilding what he wanted, he spent the first fewyears out in the community, interviewing people ona quest to understand the lens the locals brought tofaith. He asked about their lives, what they needed,their views on God, church and commitment. He

asked what was working for them and what wasnt.This allowed him to better get how to create acommunity and culture around faith that openedhuge numbers of people to the Gospel whod beenturned off for years.

Warren is a polarizing person with very strongbeliefs. That may resonate or repel you and welltalk about beliefs later. Im not asking you to



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accept his views. I bring him up here purely asan extraordinary example of someone who hasbuilt a massive, mission-driven community by firstunderstanding the needs of the people he sought

to serve.

Its a fascinating example also, because, unlikeentrepreneurs or brands who have the ability tocreate or modify their core offering from the groundup around the needs of their market, his coreproductthe teachingswerent something he felt

he could just adapt to make people happy. It wassacred. Many artists, performers and makers feelthe same about their art. What he knew, though,was that the bigger experience and culture you

create around the core offering plays a criticalrole in the way people interact with what you putinto the world. And that is where there is immenseroom to play.

AND THAT IS WHERE THERE IS

IMMENSE ROOM TO PLAY.



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THERE IS ALWAYS PAINHIDING IN THESHADOW OF DELIGHT


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The second element is identifying a shared

oppression or pain. You have to understand whatpeople are living with. How is it keeping themfrom joy, belonging, awe, vitality, ease? What isthe pain or unease or disease they would love tobe free from? What is the driving emotion behindit? Beyond the feeling that Im stuck, Im in pain,Im isolated, I dont have what I want, Im not fullyexpressed, whatever it may be, Its the emotionbehind that.

More important, whats that pain keeping youfrom doing? Is this thing felt or latent? Because ifits felt, then you can speak to it fairly easily, buta lot of people are living with some oppressionor pain, and its not on the surface. They bury it.They dont want to own it, because if they ownit and they dont do anything about it, it creates

even more suffering. So, they basically say, Idont feel this. Youve got to understand whetherits actually felt or latent, because you respond tothat differently.

You need to understand the pain for a numberof reasons. One, it allows you to solve it moreeffectively, if in fact youre capable. Two, it allows

2 IDENTIFY SHARED PAIN


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you to build messaging that speaks directly toit. Three, it allows you understand whether it is aunique pain or a shared pain.

Unique pain is something relevant to only that

individual or a small number of folks just likethem. Unique pain does not lead to widespread,harmonized action, so it is not a great basis for arevolutionary or movement approach to career,brand or venture-building.

Shared pain, however, is something that existsacross larger numbers of people. This is the typeof unease that can serve as a powerful engine for

connection. Shared pain binds people together. Italso fuels action. It is far more difficult to sustainaction when youre alone in what youre feelingthan it is when you are part of a larger group actingin concert.

By the way, one of the greatest societal pains rightnow, both latent and felt, is loneliness. People

SOCIETAL PAINS RIGHT NOW

BY THE WAY, ONE OF THE GREATER

IS LONELINESS.

cant find their people. Very often, the simple actof creating a vehicle to bring like-minded peopletogether removes that pain. Add in the sharedquest to do something deeply meaningful and youget a double-shot of belonging and purpose that

transforms pain into power.

A fascinating example of this is the fitness industryin the US. Ive founded, grown and sold venturesin this space, so, I know the industry well. For morethan 30 years, 80% to 85% of US adults will not joinor stay members of health clubs. At the same time,more than 90% say they must be exercising everyday to live the life that they want to live.

Theres this massive disconnect. People are inincredible pain.Obesity, disease, inflammation,chronic pain, anxiety and depression are rampant.Exercise is potent medicine for all. People knowthis and want to exercise, but the solutions thatare being provided on a mass level by the industryare often a blend of terrifying, boring, alienating,

ineffective, inconvenient or all of the above. Its justlayering pain on top of pain on top of pain. Add inguilt, because folks know and want to exercise, butevery time they try, theyre terrified and rejected bythe solutions available.

Crossfit is an interesting case-study. They see thispain and theyre not wedded to the traditionalmodel. So they basically create a solution that is the


S


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exact opposite of the industry, and along the waythey create a revolution in the way that fitness isexperienced. Instead of boring, its engaging, noveland exhilarating. Instead of alienating, you are aninstant member of a mission-driven community thatwill support you until the end. Members becomedie-hard evangelists not just for each other, but forthe bigger brand. Whether you agree with theirfitness modality or not, the way theyve tapped aseries of longstanding, pervasive pains is a stunningexample of what can be done when you understandand respond to pain..

But, what if your business is about expressionand delight, not pain?

What about people like artists, musicians,professionals and makers who see themselvesas operating largely on the delight side of thespectrum. Well speak more about the delight sideof the spectrum when we talk about where weretaking people in a later element. For now, a simpleanswer

There is always pain hiding in the shadow ofdelight.

All emotions are rooted in contrast. Without thedarkness, you cannot know the light. So, youcreate moments of awe and transcendence, which

simultaneously remove moments of complacencyand futility. You create moments of connection andexpression, which alleviate the pain of isolation, lackof belonging and an inability to be with people whoaccept you as you are. You create beats, canvases,verses, events that move people, and in doing so,lift them from the pain of a flat-lined life. It is theexistence of pain that allows you and them to knowwhen you are no longer in it.

So, when musician, Amanda Palmer, leveragesKickstarter to raise over $1 million for an album,shes not just crowdfunding an album, shes tapping

revolution dynamics to do something much bigger.Shes creating a vehicle that lifts people out of thepain of isolation, end-running the pain of having togo through gatekeepers to hear and see great art,and rallying the energy of the collective to resolvethe pain of a pervasive lack of purpose and givingthem a mission to play a role in.

Final thought. People often struggle with the ideaof leveraging some pre-existing pain as a motivatorfor action to remove it. What youve got tounderstand is that you didnt create the pain. Youresimply asking people to own their current realitiesas a tool to inspire a better one. Pretending paindoesnt exist and refusing to explore it denies thoseyou most seek to serve, inspire and connect with astrong motivator for action and elevation.

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ONTJUSTBUILD

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NEXT WE NEEDTO IDENTIFYTHE DICTATOR.(IF YOU DONT LOVE THE TERM,

JUST SWAP IN SOURCE OF PAINOR COMMON ENEMY.)


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This is maybe the single most contentious elementof the framework. Most people dont like thethought of calling out someone else as bad. So,Im often asked,do I have to name a person andwill I have take that person down?

Short answers, it depends and no. You DO have toidentify a dictator, because it serves as an incredibly

effective way to better understand how to getpeople out of pain and rally them to your cause..But you dont necessarily have to publicly name itor any individual. And you dont have to destroy itin order to succeed.

Heres what I mean. In politics, very often thedictator is a person and/or a regime. Generally,they must be both identified and named. But in the

business or for-purpose venture world, very oftenits not an individual. The dictator is:

A company or institution A paradigm or industry A defining trait or set of traits A societal norm, or even An internal saboteur

3 WHO IS YOURDICTATOR?Actually one of the most effective ways toharness the power of revolution without evernaming a person or company as your Dictatoris to identify the Defining Traits of that person,

company or product that are causing harm and thencall those traits out as the dictator.

Heres an interesting example. Theres aninfomercial thats been long-running for a lineof hair care products. At a certain moment, thefounder turns to the camera and says somethinglike, If it foams, it strips. Hes taken a definingtrait of every single competitive product andnamed it as the dictator. Every time someonelathers up, theyll be thinking bad things about theirshampoo. Whats really fascinating about this is thatshampoo does not naturally foam. It foams becausecompanies add a foaming agent to make peoplefeel like somethings happening. So, the psychologyis stunning here. Hes taken an element thatsuniversal for all his competitors that doesnt exist

naturally, that was added in to convince peoplethe product is working and then named it as thedictator and said its doing something terrible.

Another classic example is Apples legendary1983 television commercial that launched theMacintosh. It showed a woman running down anaisle of drone-like workers, throwing a hammer

DONTJUS

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to shatter a massive screen with that displayed adictatorial figure. No company was ever named,but everybody knew it was IBM, and the pain oroppression was conformity.

Once you identify the dictator, you need tounderstand what is propping it upthe pillarsof power, as described by Sharpand create analternative that is so much more compelling thatthose pillars move to support you. In this way, youdont have to topple or destroy the dictator, youjust give its pillars of power something better tosupport and watch them move from the Dictator toyou. Even if the dictator remains, it is left powerlessand eventually either disintegrates on its own orbecomes compelled to change its behavior and joinforces with you

In political revolutions, these pillars are most oftenthe population, police, military, industrial complexesand allies. In our context, theyre most often some

blend of customers/clients/patients, suppliers,vendors, distribution channels, trade organizationsand more.

BUT THE BIG ONE ISCUSTOMERS.

4 WHO IS YOURLEADER?

We start with a really fascinating question: in thisday and age with digital adoption and just massproliferation of messaging, do you even need aleader? And the answer is maybe yes, maybe no,but for the most part, yes.

If youre looking to do something very short-termand not asking people to do a whole lot, youmay not need that one person to organize and

run things behind the scenes, because it happensso fast, and social technology can cause a bigburst of energy that leads to a single action. But ifyoure looking to create something more sustainedwhere there are more than a few basic behaviorsthat youre looking for people to take, you needsomebody behind the scenes running the show.

One of the questions that emerges from this isdoes it have to be me? Or, should it be me?

What if youre introverted, or just dont have theneed to be front and center? Do you have to bethe person whos out there on the stump? Leadingand rallying in a very public way? The answer,interestingly enough, is yes and no. You do need



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to have or be a leader, but the leader can also bebehind the scenes, organizing and orchestrating.In fact very often in political revolutions, the leaderis hidden for safety reasons. We dont have that

concern in the consumer context as a generalrule, but even if the leader is obscured, there isalways a leader.

So, what are the traits that you look for in aleader? Pretty basic, and you probably can guessa lot of these.

Humilityyou dont want a big ego-driven,

arrogant person, because they wont connect withpeople.

Vulnerabilitysomeone who owns their humanity One of ussharing a common pain and path

cultivates believability TrustworthyPeople need to believe what you

say Desire to servelead by a true desire to serve

So, think about that if you want to step into thatleadership role. And if not, is there somebodyclose to you who would be a better person toplay that role.

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DON T JUST BUILD A BUSINESS,

START A REVOLUTION

Every great story, every great revolution, every

great movement generally starts with an incitingincident, an incendiary device that kick-starts allthe action. Sometimes, its naturally occurring.Sometimes, theres some geological thing thattriggers mass action. Sometimes, its political.Sometimes, it just happens.

More and more and especially in a commercialcontext it can be engineered, meaning that you

actually create the moment that stops people intheir tracks, introduces them to a new possibilityand inspires that action needed to travel down thisnew path.

So when Apple would launch a new device that wasdestined to start a revolution, they would create abig, dramatic event. Most recently this has taken

the form of giant events that are live-blogged tomillions in real-time.

Increasingly, documentary film and online video arebeing used to create multisensory experiences thatserve as inciting incidents. When James Colquhounsought to launch a revolution to change the waypeople look at the food they put in their body, he

5 CREATE AN INCITINGINCIDENT created a documentary calledFood Mattersthatwould serve as an inciting incident. He launchedit online and it absolutely exploded. There was notheatrical release. But it rallied millions of people

to watch, share, then change their behavior and tellothers to join in.

Rallies, festivals, conferences, tours and pretty muchany other kind of launch can serve this same purposefor those you seek to inspire and connect with.

One clarification, too. The inciting incident weare talking about here is, with rare exception,

different than the inciting incident in your ownperson journey. In the example above, the thingthat led James to start the Food Matters revolutionwas very personal. His father was getting sicker andsicker and he turned to nutrition as a way to help himget well. His fathers illness was the inciting incidentthat led to his own awakening. And that, in turn, ledJames to create a similar experience of awakening

on a more mass scale through an eye-opening,provocative media experience.

The Food Mattersdocumentary, in fact serveda dual purpose as an inciting incident in theform of a manifesto, which well talk about inmore detail shortly.



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Were now moving from the foundationelements into the key messagingelements, starting with identifying yourrally cry.

What are you rallying against? What isthe source of pain?What do you wantpeople to move away from? You needto identify this and also link it back tothe dictator as a source. And, remember,in our universe, that Dictator very oftenis not a person or even an entity, its aparadigm of defining trait. You may alsohave to do one other thing. If the pain isfelt, then its going to be on the surfaceand can serve as an effective rally cry.Your community knows whats not

working, so they can see what they wantto move away from. Its easier to sayWe dont want X! when they alreadyfeel X.

But if its latent, meaning people arein a lot of pain but theyre not owningit, then part of your job in crafting the

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rally cry becomes understanding how to bring thatto the surface. What conversations, experiences orproof can you create that will allow people to stepinto their reality enough to want to change whats

not working?

You then harness this desire to create a shared rallycry that both expresses what must end and unitespeople in making it happen.

This is a really important thing, though. You cantstop there. A lot of people stop there.Theyre allabout tearing down, laying blame and complaining

about whats not right. Thats a piece of your RAsreality, but you do them and you a deep disserviceif you leave the conversation there. Because thepower of the rally cry is that it leads people notonly away from pain, but toward something better.You need to be a part of that solution. So, letskeep building.

7 IDENTIFY UNIFYING BELIEFS

Building on the rally cry, now we add in unifyingbeliefs. These are beliefs that bind us together,where you stand up and say, This is what Ibelieve. This is what my heart says is true. This isthe core set of values that Im going to bring tothis revolution, this venture, this endeavor, thismovement.

You need clarity around it and strength and

specificity. Then you share these values in the formof a creed. Your creed is your statement of strongbeliefs. It can be text, video, audio, art or any othermedium. It can be a page long, like the Good LifeProject Living Creed. Or it can be a single sentence,like all beings are created equal, regardless ofrace, sex, ability or anything else. As long as itis clear, specific and easy for anyone to get.

You may believe an interpretative dance piecebeautifully expresses your beliefs with absoluteclarity, but if nobody else instantly gets it, thenthat form of expression is not adequate. Make it anautomatic process.



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DONT MAKE

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Creating your creed becomes a massively importanttool. From a messaging standpoint, it gives youa strong statement for people to say hell yesor hell no to. You want people to say one or

the other. Revolutions polarize. Strong ideas,businesses, ventures and movements all provokestrong reactions. Thats a good thing. If peopledont feel strongly, they wont act strongly. Nor willthey share or become members of your community.

beliefs. But the people who are in, you wantthem to all be on the same page about whatsfueling them.

Zappos is a powerful example of a mission-drivenbrand built upon the Zappos Family Core Values,a deliberate set of openly-expressed values andbeliefs. Ostensibly a shoe company, Zappos isreally something much bigger. They are a billion-dollar venture built upon the dual quest to createthe best culture in the world and the best customerservice in the world. Everything revolves aroundthe core values and beliefs. In fact, after an initialwindow at the company, employees are offeredthousands of dollars to leave. This is a test. If youtruly buy into the core beliefs and mission, youlllaugh at the money. If you dont, youll take it andrun, and everyone is better because of that.

Not long into building Good Life Project, I realizedI needed to create my own creed. So, we released

the GLP Living Creed. It has since been shared allover the web, printed out and weve had manyrequests to turn it into posters. People want to notonly raise their hands in agreement, they want topost it to signal to others this is what I believe.

THE KISS OF DEATH TO YOUR

REVOLUTION, CAREER, BODY-OF-WORK OR VENTURE ISFOR PEOPLE TO LOOK ATWHAT YOU STAND FOR ANDSAY WHATEVER.

From a team-building standpoint, your creed alsoserves a key role later in the process, when youreassembling a team to help you grow your venture.It becomes a strong decision-making tool to seewhos in and whos out, and its okay for peopleto be out. Its okay for people to not belong andpeople to not actually have that same set of shared



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8 DEFINE YOUR TOWARDVISION

Building on the rally-cry and unifying beliefs,we add the messaging element of the towardvision or solution. Simply put, what are youbuilding that will help people and rally them tojoin with you to make it happen? What will beso compelling that it will inspire the dictatorspillars of power to move from it to you andwhat youre building?

You need to create a clear vision for that newreality. And, heres an important point; it cannotbe small. Especially if youre asking peopleto not only buy your stuff, but make thatstuff a reality. It is near impossible to harnesspeople to become not just buyers, but fellowrevolutionaries, evangelists and future leaders ifyoure thinking small.

The reason is simple. People dont rally to makesmall things happen. What they rally behind is,Oh, wow. This is big. This is going to make ahuge difference in my life and the lives of somany other people. I want to get behind this,and Ill sacrifice. Ill work. Ill go out there andspread the word and evangelize, because I

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believe so deeply, and the impact is so potentiallybig and profound.

You need to paint a clear picture of that great

shared outcome.Engage every sense. Make it realand, if possible, make it present tense. As if wevealready arrived. We saw Martin Luther King, Jr.,do this incredibly powerfully in his famed I Have aDreamspeech. When he kept moving people tothat future state This is the mega dream. This iswhere were going. I have been there, now we areall going to go there together.

And, here is a critical point.

This is where you integrate your product, service,brand, art, creation, experience or venture.

Because very often the toward, the better reality,is either participation in your service, experience,product, business or brand. Or it is the opportunityto join together, rise up and help you create orgrow what everyone needs. Even if you cant yetdefine the precise solution, you must be able todefine the key qualities of it. And, by the way, agreat way to get to those qualities is to look at theDefining Traits of the Dictator and list the exactopposite of them.

But, and there is a big but here, you must neverforce your product, service, experience, brand,solution or company into the role of the toward.It must:

Be an organic fit Genuinely move people out of their shared pain Be directly relevant to the community, the RA you

are looking to serve

Too many times, Ive seen great marketers orcopywriters see gaping needs, craft tremendousmarketing funnels and irresistible copy and offers,

but then try to slide in a product that really doesntfill the need. This never works. Even if you can sellit, the returns and blowback will be brutal. And inthe context that were talking about, leveragingrevolution and movement dynamics to build aventure, you may well be viewed as predatory andopportunistic. That is a label you do not want. Moreimportant, its a behavior you do not want to take

on. If you can serve, solve and rally in an organic,deeply-aligned and authentic way, do it. If not, justwalk away.

A few interesting examples. Over the last 7 years,acclaimed blogger, New York Timesbestsellingauthor of The $100 Startupand entrepreneur, ChrisGuillebeau, built a massive online army of mission-

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driven creators. Instigators and makers, unitedaround shared pain, beliefs and aspirations. Heidentified who they were. He identified the painconformity, stifled expression and isolationthenrallied his tribe to co-create a powerful towardvision called World Domination Summit (WDS).WDS is a 3,000 person conference/festival thatconsumes Portland for 3-days every July. The nameis actually a play on words, whats hes really createdis Woodstock for World Changers.

For 3 glorious days, 3,000 people who feel alone,different come together and realize, Wow, thereare 2,999 people just like me. Im not alone. This

desire to make meaning and connect with fellownonconformist sells WDS out in a matter of hoursevery year.

Lets circle back to musician and performingartist, Amanda Palmer. She didnt just create andsell music, she brought together thousands andkickstarted a revolution. When she leveragedKickstarter to bring an album to market, it wasntjust about raising money to launch an album. It wasabout joining together around shared interests,beliefs, values, pains and the desire to be apart of something.

It was about raging against the traditional musicindustrial machine and showing them you dontcontrol us anymore. It was about building an engine

for deep connection, personal expression andrespect. It was about creating something bigger,integrating music, art and belonging. This dynamicled more than 25,000 backers to contribute over $1million to make Palmers Toward a reality.

One final note about developing your toward.And it links back to the Dictator. The end goal,your toward, should not be tied to having toeliminate the Dictator. Identifying and naming aDictator can serve as a powerful rallying point. But,but your core mission, what youre really in this for,is to create something great. Whether the Dictatorfalls along the way or remains as a disempowered

shell once its pillars of power move to you doesntreally matter.

IN FACT, SOMETIMES, AWOUNDED DICTATOR CANAWAKEN TO YOUR CAUSE AND

BECOME AN ALLY. THIS CAN BEA WIN-WIN IF YOURE OPEN TOIT AND A SOURCE OF POWERTHROUGH RECONCILIATION ANDMULTIPLIED RESOURCES.




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9 BUILDING YOUR RESONANT STORY

If you want to rally people to some kind of cause,whether its non-commercial or commercial,building a powerful shared story is a must. Youneed to ask what is my personal story or the brandsstory and what is the story that we want to build therevolutionary movement around. What is my RAsstory and how do they tie into each other?

The archetype that tends to be most effectiveand most real is the classic heros journeydescribed by Joseph Campbell.You start outin pain, though you may not even know yourein it yet. Theres an inciting incident, still yourereluctant, eventually you cross the threshold andthe journey gets rolling. You face tests, gain allies,meet mentors, face an ordeal, find the elixir/salvation, become resurrected and then returnhome to share what youve learned and play therole of mentor to others.

In sharing that story, youre simultaneously tellingthe story of every other person who you would liketo move into this movement and revolution. Andas you tell that story, they transfer into it. The story

becomes what David Gordon called a therapeuticmetaphor. This creates an incredibly powerful stateof deep connection and resonance. And of course,whatever story you tell, it must be based in truth.You never make stuff up, you just learn how to tellthe story in a way thats most compelling.

Once youve returned from your own heros journey,

youre now in a position to play the role of thementor in your RAs journeys. This is where youshare your story, then tap all of the earlier stepsto create a unified, powerful message that movespeople to action. And you put it all together in thenext element.

DON T JUST BUILD A BUSINESS,

START A REVOLUTION

A WELL-TOLD STORYILLUMINATES THE HUMANCONDITION AND MAKES ABEELINE TO THE SOUL.



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10 CRAFT YOUR MANIFESTO

Time to integrate all the prior elementsinto a single work, the manifesto. Weknow who were creating the revolutionfor (the RA), whats ailing them, whatthe source of that pain is whats keepingthe source in a position of power. Wevestepped into the role of leader, seen theimportance of defining or piggybackingon a powerful inciting incident.

Now, in the manifesto, we tie the painand source together in a rally cry,establish a set of unifying beliefs andcraft them into a creed. We paint a clearpicture of a better reality that weveeither already created for our RA or willcreate with their help. And we link our

product, service, book, brand, business,work of art or venture to that solution.

We map our own heros journey andshare it in a way that allows our RA totransfer into it. And now we bring theseall together in one powerful message,in one place.


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We pace our RAs current state and then offerglimpses of a future that could be. We havea dream and call people to rise up, to cometogether, to work as one to make it happen. And todo it now.

This is the power of the manifesto. A well-craftedmanifesto catches fire. A poorly-crafted one, or onewith missing elements falls flat.

How to weave all of these moving pieces togetherin the manifesto with the right tone and in theright order is something thats taken years, and alot of failed attempts, to figure out. Admittedly,its part art and part science. For me, even thoughIve written a number of my own manifestosonelaunched a book, another launched a businessand consulted on many others, a truly robustroadmap didnt fall into place until earlier this year. Iliterally woke up with what I now call The ManifestoCode channeling through my head (we teach thisin RevolutionU, but its a bit too involved to detail inthis short exploration of the framework).

A few other key points about the manifesto

It does not have to be written. Its going to bedifferent for different people, depending on both

who your revolutionary avatar is and what mediumyou feel most comfortable with. It can be print. Itcan be digital. It can be video. It can be audio. Itcan be pretty much anything, whatever is going tobe most effective for you and for the people whoseminds and hearts and souls youre trying to inspire.

Over the past few years, Ive seen a rising interestin the use of documentaries as manifestos.

With production costs plummeting and theworld adopting online video at a stunning pace,this makes a lot of sense. The Food Mattersdocumentary is a perfect example. It had every oneof the above-noted elements powerfully bundledinto a multisensory experience, capped by a callto action. It was viewed over a million times in ashort window and mobilized hundreds of thousands

of people to raise their hands and say, This mustchange. It also led thousands of people to jointogether and fund the revolution, purchasingDVDs and books in support of the mission andgenerating not only a global community, but ahighly-successful business venture along the way.

My first book,Career Renegade, invited people

THEN WE ADD THECALL-TO-ACTION.


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to build a career or business around, meaning,purpose and joy. But it came out in January 2009during the single worst week in the history of theeconomy since the Great Depression.

I was trying to figure out how to change the storyand rally people to understand that somethingbigger and longer-term was happening. Immensepossibility in the shadow of unexpected disruption.The chance to do the thing that you reallywanted to do and not be judged. Because thething you were doing simply didnt exist anymore. I also wanted to condition the market to

be more receptive to rallying behind the bookwhen it came out.

So, two months before publication, I wrote TheFire Fly Manifesto to offer this bigger reframeand call people to action. The manifesto took offonline, moved thousands of people to action andprofoundly changed what we were able to do with

that book launch (pre-selling thousands of booksand convincing the publisher to up the openingprint run by 50%).

What about large businesses or brands? Will thisstill work? If they are genuinely mission-drivenand building around the framework, yes. Weveseen how Zappos leveraged its values and beliefs

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to build a giant business that has revolutionizedcorporate culture and customer service. Zapposbuilt on this with a manifesto in the form ofCEO, Tony Hsiehs blockbuster book, Delivering

Happiness. The ideas in this book-form manifestoso strongly resonated, the book launched anentirely new venture, a Delivering Happinessculture training company that seeks to teach othershow to build cultures of joy, happiness and, yes,profitability.

Now, its time to move into the final elements andshift from messaging to execution and action.

...THROW OFF THEBOWLINES. SAIL AWAY FROMTHE SAFE HARBOR. CATCH

THE TRADE WINDS IN YOURSAILS. EXPLORE. DREAM.DISCOVER. MARK TWAIN



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11 DEFINE THE PATH

This is where we really get into thenuts and bolts. How do we take all thefoundation, the messaging and turn itinto a viable venture?

Step 1 Define the actions you wantyour RA to take. What are the steps,the path, from the very first action to thevery last? This will, no doubt, change

over time, but the more work you doaround this in advance, the betterguidance youll be able to give and theeasier it will be to adapt the path asneeded.

Start by asking:

What are the behaviors we want peopleto take to allow them to becomeempowered and then to empower theentire community and then to allow thatcommunity to empower an expandingwave of people beyond them?

So, we start with the outcome that



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were looking to create, the toward, and wereverse-engineer the steps that we need to getthere. One of the biggest decisions that you haveto make up front is whether your endeavor is going

to be transactional or is it going to be sustained.That determination will have a massive impact onthe path that you choose to create, the channelsyou choose to bring your venture to life and thebehaviors that you seek to inspire.

Lets define transactional versus sustained

A Transactional Revolution generally requires only

a short, one-time action or limited number of fairlysimple actions over the short window of time. Youcan build a Transactional Revolution to launch ashow, book, product, concept, company or event.Instead of rallying people to build or connect overtime, you just want to harness the energy of theframework to inspire purchase and word-of-mouth.It works stunningly well if its the right project, and if

its the right ethic and intention.

A Sustained Revolution requires a series of moreinvolved action over a longer period of time andoften builds a stronger, larger and more connectedtribe along the way.

TRANSACTIONAL REVOLUTION PATHS.

As a general rule, Transactional Revolutions areabout a single and immediate outcome,and the

behaviors are limited to: Consume Engage with media, messaging and,

potentially, conversation Evangelize Share how the above has moved you

in a real way Transact Take action to get whats being

promised

Ive been seeing a number of people tapcrowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter andIndiegogo to launch Transactional Revolutionslately. A fascinating example of this is JakeBronstein and his apparel company, Flint & Tinder.

Jake wanted to revolutionize and reinvigoratethe American cut and sew industry, but nobodyreally cared. People dont get excited aboutreinvigorating the American cut and sew industry.Jake realized, however, people would potentiallyrally around something far more personal.

He launched a Kickstarter campaign. On the faceof it, he was looking to raise money to create a $90hoodie that he guaranteed would last for 10 years.

,

START A REVOLUTION2014 Jonathan Fields | All rights reserved. Learn to start your own revolution @ RevolutionU.biz/tell-me-more

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His funding threshold was $50,000. Thirty days later,hed rallied more than 9,000 people to pledge over$1 million dollars. How? Because he understoodthe power of this platform to launch a Transactional

Revolution.Instead of just trying to sell a hoodie, he laid outa powerful argument. Its not the hoodie thatyoure buying. We exist in a world where youvegot multi-billion-dollar apparel companies who aredesigning and creating apparel based on plannedobsolescence. They use things like coarse threadand delicate fabric, because they know that six

months after you buy this its going to fall apartand youre going to be forced to buy somethingelse. Thats not cool. Thats not fair. Thats causingpain. Thats taking money out of our pocket. Itsdisgusting, so we need to rise up and show themwere not going to take it anymore.

People werent just buying a hoodie for $90, they

were raising their hand and saying, Weve got toteach that dictator (predatory apparel industry) alesson. The revolution messaging was so powerful,Jake raised more than 20 times the fundingthreshold.

And if you dont believe that this was actually arevolution and not just transaction, here is a Tweet

I got when I shared this campaign on Twitter,@jonathanfields thanks so much for sharing! Justbacked itIm so sick of clothing that falls apart!#wedeservebetter.

I can almost see this persons fist raised in the airas theyre hitting the funding button on Kickstarter.The energy that you can create in a short, intenseburst when you understand how to harness thepsychology of the framework is stunning.

SUSTAINED REVOLUTION PATHS.

Sustained Revolutions are about inspiring peopleto act over a longer, sometimes indefinite periodof time.In general, they require more energy,focus, sacrifice, investment of time, money, loveand resources. The actions we want people to takeare often more involved and the outcomes oftentaken longer to experience.

In traditional business, this is a brutal task. Mosthumans just arent wired to invest effort in the nameof long-term gain, when acting alone.

But, heres the amazing thing, Sustained Revolutiondynamics are the great equalizer. They bring peopletogether to create hyper-connected engines ofbelonging and action that support the ability of

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each individual to accomplish what would be nearimpossible alone. This is why the average big-boxhealth club that is built on the repetition, isolationand distraction model has a 40% annual drop-out

rate, abysmal long-term participation rates andoutcomes, while newer, revolution-dynamics-drivenplayers like CrossFit and SoulCycle experience theexact opposite.

So what is the secret sauce in Sustained Revolution-driven ventures?

The Path. We create a simple, friction-minimized

path that allows people to move from beingoutsiders to becoming increasingly committed,then devoted, then potentially even leaders andevangelists.

Heres one example. Somebody stumbles uponyou and your venture. She starts out consuming,and thats all it is. Maybe, its just your content if

youre a blogger. Maybe its an idea, or maybe it isa keynote. Maybe they buy the smallest possiblething that they could buy, or they dont even buy it.They just get something free. They consume it, andthey think, Oh, this is interesting. Now theyre aregular consumer and a dabbling buyer.

Then, they start to connect with your message more

deeply and they participate a little bit more in theconversation, the community. And then, they startto move from there to starting to contribute. Theybuild friendships around a sense of shared values

and aspirations. And then, we move from there tobecoming more committed. Maybe participatingin helping to grow the venture or working in smallgroups, and then from there, taking that last step tothen become a leader. At every step along the way,theyre also given opportunities and mechanismsto reach back out to individuals who are just at thatvery outsider level, and say, Hey, theres more.Theres more power here. Theres more work thatwe can do together. We can just create immense,amazing things together.

Lets circle back to Rick Warren at SaddlebackChurch for a powerful example. When Rickwas starting his church, he identified as hisrevolutionary avatar the person he was serving, theunchurched. That is about the hardest possible

person you could try to build the new churcharound. These arent just people who are unhappywith their current congregations. They dont believeat all. So, you have to not only convince them thatyoull give them a better experience, you need toconvince them to believe in God.

What Warren understood, though, was that he



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couldnt just immediately walk in and force themto accept God. He had to meet them where theywere, then take them where he wanted them tobe. He also had an interesting challenge. The

Gospel is the Gospel. He couldnt change that. Butwhat he could work with was the way people wereintroduced to it and the culture that allowed themto experience and adopt it.

So, he built his path. He identified five rings in acircle, five levels of engagement, and those were:

Communitypeople who stopped in here andthere

The Crowdwho participated more often. The Congregationwho joined and started to

participate The Committedloyal members of theCongregation and then

The Corethose who helped build theorganization and lead

These are the levels of engagement you see at thetop of this bulls-eye chart.

At the bottom is the path that he built to movepeople from the Community to the Core. Herealized he had to create different experiences andprogramming to accommodate each person at eachlevel of the circle. The experience at each level hadto both enable them to move deeper into theirspiritual journey, then also inspire them to movefrom the outer ring to the next ring to the next

ring to the next ring with the church. So, over time,they would become evermore deeply vested in thecommunity, develop a sense of belonging and thenbecome leaders.

Again, this is not about whether you agree withWarrens teachings or approach to the Gospel. Itsabout how one person built a revolutionary avatar



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path that kickstarted a faith-based SustainedRevolution that has rallied mass numbers ofpeople to action.

Fundamentally, what youre trying to do with allof this is meet people where they are. Literallyand metaphorically. Then give them a simpleway to take the actions needed to get fromwhere they are to where you all want to gotogether. Which brings up a little concept knownas the Consistency Principle.

The consistency principle tells us that people

are compelled to act consistent with theirprior acts and statements.So, if you want toinspire them to take a series of actions, start withone that is so easy to take its almost impossibleto say no, then slowly up the ante. Lay out a pathof actions that ask incrementally more and areconsistent with each prior act.

So, thinking about what youre looking toaccomplish, is the better model Transactional orSustained revolution? Once you choose, whatare the actions youd like people to take andwhat will you do to foster them?

12 DEEPEN THE TRIBE MENTALITY

For shorter transactional revolutions, deepallegiance to the tribe is less important. Forsustained revolutions, though, we need to build themost connected, engaged community possible. Itwill serve as powerful support for action and alsocreate a force that is capable of accomplishingmore than what any single member alonemight accomplish.

All of the prior elements are critical in providing thestructure, ideas, actions and stories that bring thetribe together and keep it together. Still, unifying allwill remain a big priority. So, we move now to itemnumber 12, and heres where we start to deepenthe tribe mentality.

When we think about messaging, part of what

we want to convey the idea that youre notalone.You belong to something bigger. Thattogether we succeed and divided we fail. Thatunited, we are capable of more. And that success isnot just about you.



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doesnt talk about revenue per square foot.He talks about an insider metric he callscollisionable hours, which is how often peoplebump into each other on the street, inspiring

novel conversations, serendipity and innovation.Instead of the security guards who patrol thearea while its under construction, theyre calledDowntown Rangers. Instead of people who areinterested in supporting the project, youre asubscriber. And when a subscriber comes tostay at one of the apartments at the Ogden todo work for the project, theyre not apartments.Theyre crash pads.

Its amazing to see how symbology andlanguage unify people and how differentleaders are using them in different types ofadventures.Live Strong had yellow rubberbracelets. The Grateful Dead had skeleton headillustrations. Glee has its Gleeks. Motorcycleriders have their brain buckets, armor, big

slabs and burnout. These are just a handful ofexamples. Think about how youve seen othersleverage symbology and language as a toolto unify a tribe and allow members to showtheir colors publicly. Then think about how youmight bring this into your own endeavor.

13 ASSEMBLE YOUR TORCHBEARERS

Every great revolution needs its torchbearers.People who buy deeply into the vision, then goout into the world and become voices, advocates,evangelists for it.You need to start asking criticalquestions to figure out who is on your team.Who are your zero-day true believers? Mostof us will start with some idea of who those earlyadopters, evangelists and co-creators will be. And

once you start to go public with your messaging,more will arrive.

Similar to launching any new venture, you arelooking for a blend of skills and abilities, social andrisk orientations, creative orientations and, maybemore important than anything else, buy in. It cantjust be about growth metrics or money or systems.There needs to be a deep and abiding belief in the

core values, beliefs and mission.

So, how do you know who to let in and who tokeep out? There is no simple answer, but a powerfulthreshold test, beyond having the core skills youneed, is to share the manifesto or the elements thatgo into it then ask, how does this hit you? Listen




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to the answer, but also watch for the answer. Whenpeople need to react to a powerful set of beliefsand mission, there should be a strong, physicalembodiment, along with whatever comes out of

their mouths. Look for that. Is it telling you theyretruly lit up by what you want to build? Are theyrepelled by it? Or are they indifferent?

Your launch team must not only have skills,they need to buy into the bigger why and thelong-term where. Determining this is incrediblyimportant, and again, its a step that a lot of peopleskip. They just want to get going, so they focus on

skills, and devalue visionary buy-in. Big mistake. Youneed both.

START A REVOLUTION

Things will fall apart along the way, huge challengeswill arise, doubts and fears and questions will bea natural part of the journey. If you dont haveagreement on the values and beliefs that should

govern decisions, you wont know how to navigatethese critical moments. This is also why you needto do all that foundation work that we talkedabout in the beginning. Its important for solution-development and messaging. But its also a criticaltool to help determine whos in and whos out andhow youll make decisions.

HUGE CHALLENGES WILL ARISE,

WILL BE A NATURAL PART OF THE JOURNEY.

DOUBTS AND FEARS AND QUESTIONS

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Building on the torchbearers, we need to start toidentify potential key resources and allies. Theseare people and entities who are not part of yourcore team, but who are well-aligned with whatyou are trying to create and are capable andinterested in supporting you.

The list of potential resources and allies will becompletely dependent on the nature of whatyoure building. But some general categories tobegin mapping and detailing in anticipation ofoutreach include:

Influencerswho have access to well-alignedcommunities

Technology partnerswho can help set upsystems

Creative partnerswho can help craft yoursolution and messaging

Well-aligned trade or interest-basedorganizations

Legal partnerswho can help with legal details Aligned media editors, producers andjournalistswho can help get the word out

14 ID KEY RESOURCES AND ALLIES


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Funding partnerswho can help contribute to thecause

Many otherscreate your own list

Now all of this begs an interesting question Howare all these potential contributors compensated?

Money is certainly one option. And, no doubt, thatwill be part of the equation. But Ive found thatwhen you build your venture around a deep senseof authentic alignment and service to a specificcommunity, and understand how to tell your story,something incredible happens. You become a

beacon. You start to radiate. And heres somethingIve come to experience

Beacons exert a powerful gravitational pull. Truebeacons are such a rare occurrence these days,that when people find them, they flock to them.Resources and allies become attracted to you, yourvision and your tribe.

This dynamic gives you a huge competitiveadvantage.It draws allies into your orbit who wantto be part of the revolution not in exchange formoney, but because they believe. They want to playa role in working with others like them to help bringsomething powerful to life. In some cases, they feelits more than a want, its a must.

This dynamic unfolds in political or cause-drivenrevolutions all the time. Nobody is getting paid inthe traditional sense, but everyones working hard,sometimes risking what theyd never risk in the

name of just themselves. Theyre contributing on alevel theyd often never work at for plain old cash.

Does that mean theyre working for free? Not achance. Thats one of the big fallacies. They aresimply receiving their reward, their compensation,but in a different way. One they place a greatvalue on. Value that often cash wouldnever approximate.

This is one of the most powerful benefits of buildingrevolution-dynamics into a venture.

You gain the capacity to harness emotion,passion and effort in exchange for non-monetarycompensation. People will work for the revolutionin a way they will never work for a company or justa business or just a product or just a brand. Which,again, is why it is so important not to skip all of theelements in the first half of the framework. Theyrenot just about messaging, theyre about plantingthe seeds that allow you and your venture toblossom into beacons, then capturing the myriadbenefits that derive from this status.



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BEACONS EXERT

A POWERFULGRAVITATIONAL

PULL.



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15 SWARM THE LAUNCH

Finally, we get to a point where were ready to

take all this work and flip the switch on. We callthis swarming the launch. The idea, like everythingelse here, is not mine. Swarming is a conceptthat comes out of cultural anthropology and hasbeen applied to all manner of business, brand andproduct launches. The concept is straight-forwardbe everywhere, all at once. Dont just put up a blogpost, create media for a dozen different channels

video, audio, print, digital, social snippetsand objects, live engagements, speeches andappearances. The idea is to create the experienceof being swept up in something bigger than anyone person.

Ive leveraged the swarm approach to launcheverything from businesses to products to books.But the one big difference here is that its not just

about a product or company or piece of content.Its about an opportunity to join with others,connected by values, beliefs, shared pain andaspirations, to create an improved reality that,alone, would be near impossible. Its about being apart of something that matters. Belonging. Playinga role that not only solves your problem, but

connects you with others and, in doing so, solves adeeper often latent pain, that of isolation.

At the heart of this launch methodology, the idea isto build ubiquitous messaging and action channels,then tap them simultaneously. So, we dont justtry one tiny thing and then try another one and tryanother. Its not a sequential process. The idea isthat we identify a whole bunch of ways to createthis swarm effect where the experiences and themessages are coming to you from different placesat the same time.

START A REVOLUTION

EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK,THIS IS THE THING PEOPLEARE TALKING ABOUT. THISIS HAPPENING ALL OVER THEPLACE, AND THERES AN ENERGY

THAT YOU GET SWEPT UP IN ANDCAPTIVATED BY, AND YOU FEELCALLED TO BE A PART OF.

When that happens, its incredible.



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spread and the resources needed to mobilize word-of-mouth or media distribution. Instead of having topay thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds ormillions of dollars, it can happen basically for free.

Actually, strike that, nothing is free. Ever. Thereis always a cost, even if it is measured in time,effort, heart and soul.Thats where the idea of thebeacon comes in.

The benefit of creating something that is powerfulenough for thousands to want to share is that youget to harness the effort of a huge community inmicro-bursts with their compensation coming in the

form of:

(a) Social capital they get credit for discoveringand sharing something great

(b) Sense of contribution and belonging

(c) Ability to potentially benefit from the outcomecreated

Yes, you may be creating something thatll helpthousands or millions of people.But it is also soimportant to honor the fact that those same peopleyou seek to serve are making what you want tobuild possible. Continually honor that and offerappreciation at every step along the way.

Big questionDo you still need to swarm thelaunch if your revolution is sustained?

Answeryes and no. Even though messaging andmotivation alone wont get you where you want togo long term, it can serve as a powerful mechanismto rally enough people, resources and allies to getyou to a point of self-sustainability faster. If theswarm approach doesnt resonate, though, youcan move more slowly and build in a more organicgroundswell manner. In the end, it may end upmore a question of early resources than anythingelse. But its important to know that if you dont

feel you can pull of an effective launch swarm, thatdoesnt mean your venture is dead in the water, itjust means youll need to plan more for a longer-gentler path to where you want to go.



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16 MECHANISMS & MILESTONES

Element 16 brings up the issues of measurement.

We want to be able to track whats working andwhats not. Having access to this information allowsyou to create clear intermediate milestones to worktowards, so you know if youre succeeding or not.

There are many different tools that can be used totrack messaging and channel efficacy now. Someare free, others paid. Choose the one that worksbest for the nature of campaign you want to run.

A word on transparency, too. Think seriouslyabout building a transparent process. What doesthat mean? It means create a way to dashboardyour data that is somewhat public, at least withinyour core team. You may even explore creatingdifferent levels of transparency for each level ofengagement in the revolution. So your core team

sees everything, then maybe your allies see slightlyless and your community sees only whats relevantto them.

It is important to know what people are doing(or not doing) and what channels are and are notworking. Sharing these metrics, being transparent

can also foster trust and action and allow more

people access to information needed to come upwith better ideas.

CREATES ACTION.

TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY



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So every time somebody goes in the shower andthey lather up, theres a daily trigger that remindspeople.

Emotiondoes it trigger some sort of emotion? ObservableWhen you look at all the symbology

and language weve talked about, that makessomething incredibly observable. Its somethingthat other people can see, hear and ask about.

Practical valueis there genuine value in the

idea or solution? This is what the toward is about.Were solving a problem, sometimes many, andtheres great value in that.

StoriesAre you telling a compelling story,preferably one they can transfer into. Stories makean idea memorable and you share things youremember.

When you think about the way you build yourmessaging, language and symbology and theactions you want to inspire, you may also want tokeep their propensity for contagion in your head.

Wharton professor, Jonah Berger, spent yearsresearching what makes ideas contagious, whatmakes them go viral?He found six core elements.The more you have, the more contagious an idea

becomes. When you are designing your revolution,ask can any of these six elements be organicallyintegrated into what Im creating? The wordorganic is critical here, by the way. Never try toforce something thats not meant to be.

Here are Bergers six elements of contagion:

Social currencyhaving an idea that you wantto get credit for when you share it. People shareboth online and offline, in part, because they wantto be viewed as someone in the know. Theywant credit for having found something of value.

Triggersare there regular triggers that makepeople think about your idea? We used thatexample very early on, the if it foams, it strips.

17 DESIGN FOR CONTAGION



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18 ULTIMATE STRUCTURAL GOAL:TIPPING POINT

All of these earlier elements move us towardthat magical place, the ultimate structural goalof the revolution. Hitting a tipping point, whereyou no longer have to feed the beast constantly. Itstarts to become self-sustaining, to grow on its ownand expand and generate beauty and evangelismand power and touch lives and help a lot of peoplebecome self-propagating and self-generating andauto-renewing.

At some point, once the idea begins to catch on ina larger way, you will also be faced with a certainreality. Youll need to get comfortable with the ideaof losing control over the messaging, having faiththat youve done a good enough job of definingthe core idea, beliefs, common pain, shared valueand aspirations and your deeper intention that

people will make the messaging and even thesolution their own and that is okay.

The more you do the hard work of defining theearlier elements of this framework and identifyingwith so much clarity what it is you believe in andwhat people are working for, away from and toward,the easier it is to trust the power and integrity ofthe idea and let people make it their own.


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MOVINGFORWARD


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