We’ve reached the end of the series. If you’ve just landed, you can check out the other seven parts starting here.
Crowd-source your own work. You may be nothing in planning if you’re not on Cool Planner Hair, but seriously, as a digital planner you’re only as good as your network. Ask yourself, do I help other planners? Can I ask for help and get immediate responses? Building reciprocal relationships based on generosity are imperative today.
I got really lucky. The planning survey started out as something sort of selfish. Or at least quid pro quo. I wanted to know if I was getting paid fairly as a girl and when I might expect to be a “senior” planner. And I shared the info with anyone willing to participate. Now it has become something that I do for the planning community. So too are the informational skypes I do with anyone who asks (up to one a week!)
You have to find your own way to be generous. The most common way is answering calls for help on twitter or posting helpful thinking on your own blogs and slideshare. Or build networks for planners like Anibal Casso and Eric Fernandez did with AP Find, a storage center of valuable relevant finds from the web. Or Account Planning School of the Web that Rob Campbell now runs. Or one of the number of fresh things Bud Caddell is constantly known for kicking in the mix. Then there are fun things like planner hair that I mentioned. I’d love to know more cool planner projects out there – please give some props in the comments.
These people have made themselves famous in our little planner world. These are people who can ask for help and get responses quickly. These are the type I would want to fill my team with.
Forget my list. Make your own. What the fuck do I know? There’s no one right answer. You have to find what works for you. And you’ve had experiences none of us has had. So start that generous project and help us know what you know.
If you’re interested in the slides from this series, complete with images I forgot to credit, they are now up on slideshare.


Great post, especially the sentiment of ‘be generous to be showered in generous’.
Of course it only works if you’re doing it because it’s something you want to do and care about – but I’m still amazed how few people ‘try stuff’ for fear of looking foolish to their peers.
To coin your phrase … who the fuck cares … I’d rather work with a trier than a talker.
See you in China soon. Ha.
Faris set up a plannersphere Ning here: http://accountplan.ning.com. Its a bit spammy at the moment, but still a useful resource.
The Misentropy Plannersphere search engine is priceless – it googles all the Planning blogs, great if you’re looking for that blog post you saw a month ago but can’t quite remember where, or just for general trends stuff or several points of view: http://blaiq.typepad.com/misentropy/mpse.html
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Loved this series. Great stuff and lots of cool links. Thanks very much for sharing. Peace.
Hi Heather, interesting stuff. Someone may have suggested this already, but it might be nice to collate all 8 into a slideshare / PDF / single page to make it easier to read them from start to finish?
Hey Ben,
I think you missed the last line – there’s a link to slideshare in the post.
Thanks!
Heather
Course there is! Thanks