Tim Mushey's - Tim's Triple Play Edition 1; Differentiation, Jim Abbott & Dave Grohl

Welcome to the first edition of Tim's Triple Play! It means so much that you've joined us here, and will hopefully enjoy the content!

If you have not connected with me on my new "C+ Jim" LinkedIn account, you are probably wondering, "What the heck is C+ Jim"?

I've had the moniker "C+ Jim" on the shelf for years, and finally started to use it a bit on social media recently.

In January of 2022, I started a 2nd LinkedIn account, used the name "C+ Jim", and was just a logo. I had an amazing time connecting with over 2000 people from across the world. In late August, I lost my job, and showed my face on my profile for the first time. That has taken my level of engagement and amount of connections to a whole other level.

The "C+" comes from my grade point average in university. The "Jim" is an ongoing joke that a professor thought my name was Jim for a full semester at school and I never corrected him.

Business

The word "differentiation" has been coming up a lot lately in conversations that I've been having on video and in-person calls. Quite often the biggest differentiator that can set you a part in business is you. Cliche? Maybe. True? You betcha!

A believe that really caring about others on and offline can set you apart from so many other people in your space.

Take social media for example. A lot of people and businesses just post, post, post and rarely engage on line. That's like going to an after-work networking event, telling people everything about you and your business, then walking away before they can say anything about themselves.

But imagine if you posted, replied to all the comments, commented on other people's posts, shared other people's content, and helped connect like-minded people? Only a small minority of people are consistently doing that, and this strategy will definitely help you stand out.

One other thing that I LOVE as a differentiator is not being "all business all the time". Let your personality shine through in your content. If you are comfortable, let your audience and customers in to your personal life, don't be afraid to make people laugh, and make people feel good that there are "real people" behind the business.

One immediate differentiator that you can start right away is using the audio button for communicating with people via LinkedIn DMs. It's used so infrequently by people that I'm connecting with, but it really is a great way to be more memorable in that space.

Sports

Jim Abbott was a major league pitcher who pitched for 11 major league seasons and was born without a right hand. I remember just being in awe of him growing up. Every time he threw the ball, he had to transition his glove to his left hand during his follow through. On September 4, 1993 Jim threw a no-hitter, an amazing accomplishment for any pitcher, but a phenomenal accomplishment for a one-handed pitcher.

Click here to watch Jim Abbott's story.

Is something holding you back because of potential limitations? Give it a try anyways. You've got this! If Jim can live his dream you can too!

Music

Anyone who knows me even a little bit, knows what a fan I am of Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters.

I fell in love with the band over 10 years ago, and really took a liking to Dave after seeing the Sound City documentary in 2013. The 8-part series "Sonic Highways" from 2014 was another stellar example of story telling. He's recently written a book called, "The StoryTeller" and released another documentary during Covid called "What Drives Us".

Did I mention the music is just incredible? The sleeper pick for best album is the 2011 release called "Wasting Light". I'm sure that I've listened to it "front to back" about 100 times over the past several years.

He records "real music", his passion is off the charts, and he seems to be the most connected guy in the music industry. He also works a crowd like no other, and has a whole lot of fun while doing it.

I highly recommend checking out those documentaries and his recent book! There are some awesome rock n' roll stories in there!

"Singing in to a microphone, and learning to play an instrument - learning to do your craft - that's the most important thing. It's not about what goes in to a computer." - Dave Grohl

Click here to see Dave's sensational keynote speech at SXSW in 2013.

Extra Innings

I have a blog that I've kept active since 2011 called "Sell Lead Succeed". The main topics that I write about are sales, leadership, personal branding and social media strategy. Pop by to check it out if you need some additional inspiration in any of those areas.

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Until next Friday, thanks again for reading!