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The Attainable Podcast Network
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Attainable
The pAuDcast
July 28, 2015 By William Smith
In today's show, Nathan Miller sits down with Seth Mattison, a Generational Dynamics expert. Seth has a well-earned reputation as a trend spotter, workforce strategist and a management renegade, and is a frequent conference speaker on topics of generations.
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So this is the first time that you and I've met, but I've actually seen you speak a couple of times, Seth.
I think the last two team summits you were there.
I'm sorry you had to see two in a row. You had to laugh at some of my same jokes then, which is always a bit of a bummer.
No, I think the second one you spoke in two different manners.
Yeah, we did some break-out, some marketing stuff. Sales and marketing stuff.
It wasn't overly repetitious for me.
It wasn't too painful?
Not at all. But one of the things that I thought was interesting, and I don't know if it's just because I'm also a native Midwesterner, but you were describing your experience as being a Minnesota farm boy.
And so the thought that came to mind was, how do you go from a Minnesota farm boy to a generational expert based out of Los Angeles?
A lot a luck. A lot of luck, and a lot of people willing to reach down and give guidance, and help me up. And that's the truth. And I think about that a lot where the small amount of success that I've had thus far is, I'm always thinking about how can you help the next person up? That's what it's all about. Right place, right time. I mean, the story kind of starts– people will like, how does someone find themselves in this path of like studying generations?
Right. It's not really like something I was aware of or would think of as a career. You travel around and like talk about the generations, and I will usually say, it started very early on. I grew up on a fourth generation farm in Southern Minnesota.
So I grew up working alongside my father, my grandfather, my great grandfather, the guy's born in 1910. And so I had this opportunity with these individuals to like reach back in time through history and access all of these stories. And I kind of just intuitively understood, without even realizing it, that each one of these generations has their own unique story, and it shapes how they see the world, how they think about leadership, and sales, and relationships.
And I was always just kind of naturally equipped, because I was always around older people, to be able to build relationships across a 20 or 30 year divide in age. So when I came out of school, and went to work for a management consulting firm where everyone was 20 or 30 years older than I was, like, I didn't– sometimes I wish I could've gone to a company where it was a bunch of young people and you all were the same age, and I was surrounded by like 50-year-olds.
So do you think your farm experiences, being on that fourth generation farm, did that and informed the way that you navigated your way through this company that you're in–
–where people are 20, 30 years older than you.
Were you conscious of that?
I wasn't at the time. It wasn't until I was at the consulting firm, and I'm building relationships with our clients who are also 50-60 plus. And they're looking at me at the time saying, what the hell are you going to tell us about leadership, and culture, and change management. You're like the same age as my knucklehead kid, dude. Right?
And it was like then I started to sense like, wow, there is this divide here, and so to bridge the gap I started asking them more pointed questions about their younger workforce. And the tables completely flipped. And all of a sudden, my age became a benefit. They were looking at me like, wow, you are one of them, and maybe you could help give me some insider perspective on who they are, and what they want.
And so the light bulbs kind of go off in my head of like, wow, this is a real thing. These people are really struggling with like, getting their arms around, and this is like in '06, '07. And so we've come a long way since then in terms of how much people talk about the generations. We see it everywhere today. But then, partially because social media wasn't what it is today, there wasn't that stream coming at us. And so I started researching the subject, and finding out there's people who are talking about this.
And I saw there were two individuals who were roughly my age. One person was named Peter Sheahan, another was named Jason Dorsey. And I'm looking at these two guys, and I'm saying to myself, if they could do this, right, it's like you launching this project, they could do it, I could do it. They're out there speaking and getting paid for it. I could find a way to do it, and so I just kind of became a student of the subject.
And I found two mentors, David Stillman and Lynn Lancaster, who wrote a best seller in 2002 called, When Generations Collide, and I spent a year stalking them, and hounding them, and convincing them that we should collaborate and work together, and got them to take me on.
And so what did that look like? How did you hound them and stalk them, and finally wear them down so they were able to mentor you?
It started out just with leveraging my network, which is part of what I learned in the consulting world. Consulting, you don't sell consulting with a cold call you have to leverage networks, and meet people, and find out how to add value, and so I leveraged my network to know someone, who knew someone, who knew David to convince them to kind of make an introduction for me, and then found a way to try to add value to his day and convince him to give me a coffee, and we met.
And I brought all of my energy and enthusiasm. And one of the biggest things I've learned is that people want to be around people who are enthusiastic, who are excited about, not just the subject matter, but life. Right? They want to be around that. So if you show up and you bring some of that fire, even if you maybe don't have the most knowledge around the subject, they're going, maybe we'll give this person a shot.
And so while I didn't convince them in the initial meeting to give me a job, I convinced him to at least mentor me and develop a bit of a relationship.
They got the green light to write a new book about the millennial generation. This is now back in '07 going into '08, called The M Factor, how the millennial generation's rocking the workplace.
And it was like getting called up into the big leagues. It's like they called, and they're like, we got an opportunity that we think you'd be perfect for to help us research and write this book. And what do you think? And I'm like packing my bags, literally, at the same time.
Well, give me the weekend to think about it.
Exactly. Exactly. And it was like, do you want to discuss money? I was already out the door. Sign me up. And the truth is and this goes back to when people wonder how do you start, how do you make it? Money wasn't even in a conversation. There was very little money in the beginning, and I would have taken zero to have done whatever. In fact, what most people don't know is in the beginning of that relationship, I was donating blood platelets twice a week to make extra cash to be able to pursue this opportunity, which has since then, the finances are irrelevant at this point.
But to get in the game, the question is what are you willing to sacrifice? How much do you believe in what it is you're pursuing?
So what was it about that subject, specifically, that made you that passionate about it that I'm going to donate plasma to survive so I can be a part of this?
Part of it was them, David and Lynn. They're very inspiring people. Part of it was I saw there was a real need in the marketplace, and people were confused, and frustrated, and hurting by it. And I had such deep respect and fascination with history and these other generations. And part of it was simply an entry point into an opportunity to be able to help people, right. Like, at my core I'm a teacher.
I could be a high school teacher right now. I could be an elementary school teacher. In essence, what I do is teach. This opportunity just gives me a much larger classroom to be able to impact people's lives. And this was an entry point into the game.
So when you were back on that farm in Minnesota dreaming about getting out, being a part of the world, having a voice, so to speak–
–what was that dream? And is it anywhere near where you are now? Is there any sort of parallel between Seth then and Seth now?
So first of all, it's a great question. No one's asked me that question. What I would say is the dream was much, much smaller on the farm. In fact, the dream was not– there wasn't even a dream of having the ability to speak around the world an impact people's lives. It was not until my second year of college I had an opportunity to spend a semester in New York City around some really, really wise souls in the real estate development business.
And they kind of opened my– part of it is living in New York, right, you had the keys to the world. Opened my imagination to what was possible, and the idea of becoming a student of life that you will be a continuous learner, and study subjects from leadership to philosophy, et cetera, et cetera, and just open my mind to what was possible. And that kind of sparked this idea of, there's a bigger world out there. Bigger opportunities.
And if I find a way to add value to people's lives, money will be irrelevant. And then the universe then kind of manifests and starts to present doors to you along the way.
So are you a believer in that type of philosophy? I mean, you kind of already answered that, and I think I kind of know, but that preparing for luck, so to speak.
What's the old saying? Luck is preparation meets opportunity.
And we are co-creators with the universe, your higher power, source, God, whatever you want to call it. I fully believe that we are in this process together to manifest. We have full control. You're going to get some curveballs thrown at you, but what you fully set your mind to, and you own, and believe, and feel with every cell in your body, there is no other way to explain where I'm at today, other than every single morning I woke up once I kind of saw this, and I said I'm so thankful and grateful that I am speaking all over the world positively impacting and changing people's lives for the better.
And I can say that that fast, because I've said that 1,000 times. And I said that before there was ever an opportunity to do it. And then, quite literally, that has become life.
I feel like I personally identify with that sense of enthusiasm, and the interconnectedness, and the possibilities that can be derived from that. But I can't help but imagine that you run into instances sometimes in certain companies, with certain people, that don't necessarily maybe share that same sense of belief. Maybe there's a certain amount of cynicism that you run into. And what are some experiences like that that you face? I'm curious about that, and how do you deal with that and still get your message across? Maybe you don't. I don't know.
Belief, so that subject of being able to manifest and create, while it is a deep passion of mine, it's not something that I currently spend a lot of time in delivering content-wise. It's definitely in the lab, because I feel so passionately about it. But I meet people who have that mindset around a lot of things of what's possible in their own careers, what's possible with their companies?
And that's one of the things that I do have such a deep appreciation for that Brandon Dawson here at Audigy has focused on the whole idea around the belief, our belief lid, because what we do believe does really dictate what is possible for us. And helping people to do elevate that lid of what is possible, because the truth is most people, like I did from the farm, we dream small. And until somebody comes along and gives you permission to dream and believe something much bigger, we stay in this little box.
And so I find the people who sometimes feel that way, they just have yet to encounter someone who really opens their eyes to something that could be much bigger.
Yeah. Sometimes it's just I want to get off the farm.
And then, then what?
Exactly. That's as far as you could see. So we want to elevate that.
So backing up just a little bit, we've kind of referenced the generations a few times. For those of us not aware of what the generations are, can you kind of give us a breakdown?
Sure, sure. So this there's two ways we define a generation, one of which is by age, chronological age. So we look at birth years. So when we think about four and soon to be five generations now here in the US, we have first, what we call our traditionalist generation born prior to 1945. And from a US population size of 75 million, following the traditionalist, we have the baby boomer generation born between 1946 and 1964, roughly 80 million.
And following baby boomers, we have Generation X, Gen Xers born between 1965 and 1979, 60 million, so much smaller generation than baby boomers. Following Xers, we have the millennial generation also known as Gen Y. People will read and see both of those names thrown around. It's referring to the same generation. Marketers just love to throw different tags on that group born between 1980 and roughly 1995 as we define them, at about again 80 million. So almost the exact same size as the boomers.
And then there's this new generation that's starting to be talked about now. It's getting some traction, referred to as Generation Z, some people call it Generation Edge, born from roughly 1996 to 2010. And the latest numbers that I saw put that generation size-wise around 23, 24 million. So these would be the children of Generation X. Much smaller generation, influential, but it will be interesting to see them in comparison to millennials. Millennials being so big, 80 million.
And there's always a lot of attention about whoever's new and next, Gen Z, but because they're just not that big, it will be interesting to see the impact they're able to make in the marketplace and in the workplace. So age is a part of it. The second way, though, because you have to give a little bit more than that. Age is just a starting place. To really understand these generations, we have to look at the events and conditions that took place during each one of these generation's formative years.
And our formative years are our preteen, teen years, roughly the ages of around 14 to 24. And so studying generational theory, what we're really doing is we're studying history, and we're saying what took place during this kind of block of time for each one of these groups that then influenced and shaped their generational personality, which we carry with us throughout our entire life. And some people will say, as we get older, do we really it's become more alike, the same? Which is what, we all get grouchier and grumpier as we get older. And the truth is-
Generally speaking.
Generally speaking, that is true, but the truth is the personality traits we develop in those preteen, teen years, we carry with us throughout our entire life. And so that's what we look at. You start with age, and then we look at these events and conditions, and that helps give a profile and a picture of these groups.
That's particularly interesting and almost kind of depressing, like preteen, teen attitudes and carry through those the rest of our lives.
I know, I know, right? It's interesting.
So do you know anything about the fluctuation in the populations of those generations? Why there's such a broad difference? It's interesting how those different numbers pop up. Yeah, like 80 million and 20 million, like, that's a pretty–
It's a big span.
So baby boomers, quite simply, we call it the boom, because their traditional parents came home from World War II, everybody started having families, boom, an explosion in the population. And then we see the shrinking with Generation X for two reasons. One, women's lib. Women started entering the workplace in record numbers. Instead of just one working parent, they're going to work. Now you've got two working parents. And as a result, people start having smaller families. Number one, number two we also see birth control, obviously, comes on the market. So free love can reign without the result of children.
We're very grateful for that, right? A dip in the population with Xers, obviously, then boomers had children, millennials, they were a huge group, so they have a large number of children, total-wise. And obviously, Generation X, smaller generation and a smaller number of children being born. And we see this small number of Generation Z, so smaller. It's interesting.
Yeah. More dual income families, presumably, more career.
Interesting. So where do you fit into the grand scheme of things? What generation are you a part of?
So I'm actually what we call, and I didn't acknowledge this group, but I'm what you call a cusper. And a cusper is someone who kind of sits right in between two generations.
OK, I think I'm there, too. I was born in 79.
OK, so you're '79, I was born in 1981, and we're right on the edge. And I talk to a lot of people who fall into this category, either where we are, '79 to '81, or Boomer-Xer cuspers born between, like '63 '66, '67, and this group always tells me– there's like this resulting characteristic of they feel a little bit invisible in this whole generation's conversation.
Because like, I'm not exactly an Xer. I'm not exactly a millennial. I'm kind of in between, or Xer-Boomer, that's one, too, we find that they are very often what we call the great translator, the great communicator inside their company, their teams, because it's almost as if they're generationally bilingual. When you live on the edge like that, you probably kind of get and can relate to some Gen X characteristics.
And you probably get some of the millennial aspects.
Not all of it.
Not all of it, but some of it. And so then you kind of end up playing this kind of in-betweener. And obviously, listen, birth order, the part of the country you lived in, your parents, like all of those things have an influence in shaping who you are and which generation you relate to. We're never trying to put people in a box, and stereotype and label people and just say. Everybody in this 15-year stretch are all exactly alike. They're not, but the subject gives us clues as to how to interact, and communicate, and lead, and manage these people in a really interesting way.
So do you think being a cusper or having that sort of bilingual skill between generations, you think that gives you a little bit more of an objective perspective, especially between those Gen X-millennial sort of communication styles? Do you feel like it gives you kind of a leg up in your industry, so to speak?
I definitely– I mean, I think that's probably part of what and has helped me, for whatever skills and assets I have, it's been a combination of being a cusper and growing up around three other generations. So it's like, I have traditionalist characteristics in me. I have baby boomer idealism characteristics in me. I have Xer skepticism.
I'm this weird dichotomy of kind of all of the generations morphed up. And what that does is it allows me to have deep empathy for each one of the generations. And I honestly believe that's one of the biggest driving factors in whether or not you have the ability to connect across the generations, is empathy. Is you need to be able– can you put yourself in another generation's shoes?
Can you feel what it would have been like to be a baby boomer in the late '60s having to face the prospect of being drafted in to a war that you may or may not have agreed with? Can you put yourself in the shoes of being a Generation Xer following this massive group of baby boomers, smaller generation, labeled stereotyped, economy's not doing well, the parents divorce? Like, can you go there, and feel what they have felt?
And if you can do that, right, it gives you such insight. And you can more effectively relate to that group that you show up in such a way that you can meet people where they are. You can meet other generations where they are, without losing who you are, and that's the goal.
So what do you think people, just in your work and your experience, what do they typically not understand about the other generations? What do they need to know? And that's a pretty broad, open question.
There's got to be–
There's a couple of things. You know, I think one of the things to think about, like if found I were to say to people, if there's one thing you want to be thinking about with baby boomers today, if there's one thing you want to think about with Generation Xers, for baby boomers, I would say– One thing, a trend, that I'm noticing is there's a group of boomers that have kind of fallen into this category of what I'll call, they've retired without telling you. Which means they've kind of–
Senioritis, so to speak?
Yeah, exactly, exactly. In fact, I heard that phrase today for the first time. I mean, I've heard it from a school setting, but it could relate to boomers, senioritis. It's a little bit what it is. They are not incredibly inspired right now. They've been doing a particular job for a period of time. They're kind of going through the motions, biding their time to be able to retire. '08 kind of slammed their retirement savings, so they're working longer than they thought they were going to. They're kind of going through the motions.
And what I say to people if you are managing or leading up, you're younger person managing a baby boomer, you've got boomers on your team, and your sensing that– don't write them off. I think we've got to think about the idea of reigniting the flame with many of these boomers. They need to be reinspired. They need to have someone poke them and push them a little bit and say, what do you want to create in the next– however long your stretch is that you want to work.
You want to work another three years, another five years, what do you want to create? What you want to do? What you want to change? Let's figure it out and find a way to help you bring that to life. They need somebody to say that to them. So watching that whole idea of baby boomers having retired without telling you, re, inspiring them, getting them fired up about what they do.
Xers are in a really interesting place in that they are, they're kind of in want I call the Xer squeeze. They're squeeze generation between these two massive groups, 80 million boomers, roughly 80 million millennials, a smaller group. They've been waiting in the wings of boomers forever, waiting to step up into these key leadership positions, and now they've got all of these with this wave of millennials that are like, it's my turn, it's my turn. I want to sit at the table, and Xers are kind of like, dude, slow your roll. I've been waiting 20 years to take this spot.
And so if you're interacting with Xers, if you're a baby boomer, you've got to find places to delegate to this generation, to let go of the reins, especially in family businesses. Step back, let them have an opportunity to step up, and put their stamp on things. Don't be holding so tight into the idea of, now, we do things this way because that's the way it's always been done and that's how it is. You've got to let them mix it up.
And if you're a millennial, you've got to be conscious of that. It's like, yeah, maybe you've been waiting five or 10 years for your chance. You've been working for that period of time, but you're talking to an Xer who's like, dude, I got 20 years. So be conscious of that. Be cognizant of that, so that they have a chance to really put their stamp on things. And with millennials today, millennials, that's a whole other subject. That will be a whole podcast that we'll do on that group. for sure.
Well, I mean, I think that's one of the things that really fascinates people. There's so much focus on the millennial generation right now.
But people are kind of over it, to be honest.
Yeah, I think so. I think there's a little fatigue there. But I think that our culture is so obsessed with age, I think there's probably an aspect of maybe a little ageism built into our attitudes around the boomer generation. And we're so focused on youth and beauty that I think there's maybe an attitude that gets put out there that's not really fair to the millennial generation. That it's a superficial, inexperienced, an ignorant generation.
I would agree with that. We get a couple of negative tags. There's no work ethic, entitled generation, narcissistic, and within every one of those, there's maybe a sliver of truth.
There's a kernel of truth that I think is good for us as a generation to acknowledge and look at. And just say, where does that maybe show up for me? Where could I acknowledge that? Where do I maybe show up in my life or in my work and act a little bit entitled? Where could I show up and look to add value in other people's lives first, to say, what can I do for this person versus what can I get out of it? We can all do that, but a [INAUDIBLE] is millennial generation. The work ethic conversation is really interesting to me. I ask my audiences all the time. That will come up. Ah, there's no work ethic. I'll say, well, how do you define work ethic first of all? And what does that look like?
Because many times, it's like it's been based on hours in time at the desk or the job. And for our generation, a lot of times, it's less about time and more about efficiency and results. If I can knock out everything that you've asked me to do in five hours, and leave and get out and enjoy my day, or scroll Instagram for the next hour, like, what's the problem versus being only consumed around time?
But I also see people who are kind of going through the motions, and who don't have the same level of what I'll call "grit" around work ethic of being willing to– there's kind of this mindset that I notice of feeling like a job is maybe beneath you. And it's like, I went to school, I got my MBA. That job is beneath me. I'm not willing to start at the bottom. I need to come in here.
And I don't think that's a super wise attitude to have. You can have it all you want, but the people who hustle and are willing to do whatever's asked, even if you are the smartest person in the room, to show up and say, you know what, I'll sweep the floors or whatever the scenario of that is, answer the phones, and put in the time. We could use a little of that.
Well, it's that putting in the time thing that's interesting, because I think there's a totally different attitude about that, too. I mean, even just conversations that I have with my dad who is part of the boomer generation, is his frame of reference is, you graduate from school. If you go to school, and you get a job, and you have that job for 35 to 40 years, and then you retire, games over. Whereas I think the millennial generation and maybe Gen X to a certain degree, a career is a series of jobs. And it's a much, much different attitude. So having those conversations with him has been interesting for me. Like, why would you leave that job?
I'm not planning to leave my job.
Listen, I could not agree with you more. We're moving from kind of this life happens at a very linear process, you said it. And what was it? You graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, go from the starter house to the bigger house, starter car to the bigger car, work your tail off, get the corner office, retire with a gold watch, and move into a retirement period, end of story, right?
Sail off into the sunset. And that's just being completely reevaluated today. And we see it in the statistics in the numbers, right? Marriage is happening later. Children are happening later for the millennial generation. If I'm giving the numbers off the top my head, I think it's like 28, 29 for getting married. 30, 31 for having children. That's moving from a 22, 23 time frame for baby boomers, which gives you freedom and flexibility.
Because the truth is, if you've got children, and mouths to feed, and a roof to keep over people's head, you don't have the ability to self-actualize and say, this job doesn't give me meaning, I'm out of here, dude. And you're like, you gotta pay the bills. And that's just not the case for us.
Yeah, and I think because of that sort of attitude, I think it probably confuses people like baby boomers even further. Because that millennial– and I think it's a good thing for the most part, they're making their experience and their life about themselves to a certain degree. There's a little less self-sacrifice. It can delve into the navel-gazing and narcissistic, of course, but it's that question of what do people really want out of their lives. And I think that's maybe something that the baby boomer generation didn't really have the option to choose.
They didn't have the option, because you turned 18, what were your options? You ask any baby boomer, you turn 18, what would your parents say to you? We love you. We're proud of you. There's the door.
Don't let it hit you on the way out. You can go to school. You can get a job, but you ain't coming back home. And if you did have to come back home, number one, you were publicly scorned, like it was, you would never want to tell anyone that you were living in your parents' basement.
Right? That was the worst thing ever. And for our generation, not that it's like the greatest in the world, but it's–
It's much more acceptable.
It's much more accepted. And the truth is, most people are like friends with their parents today. And you go back, and it's like we are friends. We go on vacations together. We hang out together. They got a bigger TV and better food in the refrigerator, by the way, so it's like, it's all good. And by the way, I will say this. Baby boomers who love to give me grief on that, I will be the first person that will say, that is the happiest in that equation, when millennials come home from college without a job, is mom. Because mom is saying please, dear Lord, do not leave me at home alone with your father any longer. She can't wait.
It's great. So I was doing a little research on you, looking at your website. I looked at the post about the blue M&Ms, and one of the ideas or concepts that you touched upon in that post, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, is the idea of how many people out there do what it is you do in that you always have to maintain your edge?
And I just wanted to know what is it that you think is special and unique about what it is that you do that nobody else can really deliver the same way?
That's a big question. That's a big question. So what you're referring to is this whole idea of the commoditization of everything that we do, right? There's so many people do pretty much exactly– and we can go across industries, across services, there's a whole bunch of people, if you're listening to this right now, there's 50 people, there's 1,000 people that do pretty much exactly what you do. And that can be really alarming and kind of scary, but it also creates a unique opportunity for us you take a step back and to not focus exclusively on what you do, but instead focus on how you do what you do.
Right. This gives meaning to what you do, too.
Yeah, absolutely.
Completely validating.
Absolutely, absolutely. And this idea of capturing what you call your "how" advantage. So my good friend and business performance expert Ryan Estes kind of coined this phrase, your "how" advantage. And when we first started talking about it, I'm just like, what the hell is "how" advantage. And it wasn't until he and I got in this discussion, it was like the simplest and easiest way to define a "how" advantage and capture it, is to focus on being remarkable consistently.
Now my definition of being remarkable is worthy of being remarked upon. And so this whole idea of so good at your experience, your product, whatever it is, your experience is so good that I have to tell someone about the experience. And so I challenge people, and I'm like, when is the last time you had any experience with a brand or a service provider that was so good that you had to tell someone about it?
Better yet, when is the last time you created an experience for someone that was so good they had to tell someone about it? And I show up every single day thinking about that question. Every interaction with my clients, am I showing up in such a way that they have to tell someone about this, about working with me. And it's an elusive goal. It's a challenge and a goal that you wake up and you try to chase every single day, but you're mindful of it.
You're mindful of it when you get the email request about another document or another thing that they need or want. Or they need you to do a rewrite. And in your mind, you just want to be like, not respond or give it half your effort, but you say this is a moment. This is an opportunity right here to create a unique, to elevate the experience, create that "how" advantage. And that's part of what I try to do. You try to go above and beyond.
And the thing that I lean into is, I try to care more than I probably should. I try to show up, it comes back to the empathy thing. And you could have a room full of 60-year-old engineers in an industry where they're not inspired, and they're on their way out. And I try to put myself in their shoes, and I try to really care about who they are and where they're at in that moment in life, and try to make an impact. And you're never going to impact everybody, but if you get the chance to impact a few–
And I had a gentleman a couple weeks ago come up to me after an event. He was probably 60. And I talked about being courageous in this program, and showing up, and having courage, and being brave. And he came up to me, and he said, you know, I never in my life ever felt good enough to come up and talk to somebody like you. Whether it was a leader, or a quote, unquote expert–
Like he wasn't worthy to do that? Like he wasn't good enough, is that what he means?
I never felt good enough, which you guessed, worthy. But because you told us to be brave, to be courageous, I decided that today I was going to come up and say hello. And the guy gives me a hug. And there's like five people around us watching this, right?
I'm speechless, like, I'm literally fighting back tears, because you would have never guessed in a million years looking at this man that that is what he would have taken away from that program. That he didn't feel good enough, and that he needed to be more brave and more courageous in his life to do something as simple as come up and have a conversation with me. And that's when you realize, it's like if you really show up and you care, the ripple effects that this work has, it's unbelievable.
Isn't that crazy, though? I mean, that's beautiful story, but it seems so sad to me that the idea of connecting with another human being, if that's his act of bravery, I mean, good for that man for being able to do that, because that's his act of bravery. But like what– is that a generational thing?
Like, what is it with us? Like, why can't we do that?
We're all there. We're all dealing with that situation. We're all fighting these internal battles. I think there's, when I look out at my audience, I think there's so many people who are, they have their own internal battles. And part of which, is they don't feel good enough. They don't feel like they deserve to have success, or love, or they're smart enough, or talented enough, like, we all have those that we're fighting with every single day. And I feel like people are dying inside for someone to come and inspire them and tell them that they are good enough.
It's crazy to think, especially when you look out on a room full of quote, unquote, what would seem successful leaders and individuals. And these are the things I'm finding people want to talk to me about the most, which is really fascinating. I can talk about communication, and generations, and leadership, and they want to talk about courage and bravery. And how do they unleash, and really be their best self, and love themselves, and love the people around them. It's wild.
Yeah, I think that's great, though. I mean, I think, because it does take a certain amount of bravery to be vulnerable and express–
That's the word.
–ourselves, and connect in that way. But that's a lot to give every day. So how do you build that part of yourself back up and maintain that edge, so you can go out and deliver on a daily, weekly basis, that level of connection with people?
It does take a lot of you. It does. But I just want to acknowledge, you said the word, vulnerability, and that is such a big part of it, especially with leadership today. I think there's a little bit of a leadership crisis today. In a lot of the companies I go into, I see a lack of leader's willingness to be vulnerable, to really speak from an authentic space. And people are wanting that. And I try to think about that, too, for myself, how do I show up and be vulnerable, be my most authentic self from stage?
And you're right, it does, when you give, I mean, when I come off a 60-minute or even a 90-minute workshop, I am totally exhausted. Because if you've done it right, you've given everything that you've got in that moment.
But I mean, there's an aspect of performance.
I don't mean that in an insincere way.
No, it is.
But you are, if you're going to command a room of 500, 2,000 people or whatever, you need to connect with them physically, and emotionally, and verbally, so it's a lot.
It took me a while to really appreciate the reality of that, of the element of acting. I never, ever wanted to have acknowledged that before. It's like, oh, you're a business expert, and you're an expert in this field. But if you have a story to tell, and you're going to tell that story, even if it's just one story within an hour long speech, but you're going to tell that story every day, 60, 70 times a year, and not have it come across as canned–
–or scripted, but to make it feel real, it is an element of acting. And in order to do that, you have to feel it and live it every single day, like it's the first time you told it. You have to go to that space. And so that can be emotionally and physically draining. And the only way for me, personally, that you can maintain the energy is, I mean, you have to take care of yourself physically. You've got to get your sleep. You've got to get your rest. Meditation is a big part of my life. Every single day that helps me recharge and keep me focused on what I'm doing.
You've got to make smart life choices. I like to go out and have a nice glass of wine and a few cocktails with friends, but it's like you've got to limit those things, because it will hold you back. So some of it is the blocking and tackling, but another big part of it, too, is having a strong support system, I'm very blessed in that I have my family. My parents are together. They're still a huge support system. They've got my back.
My wife is my biggest fan. She allows and helps facilitate me living this dream. I mean, I'm on the road right now. I'm gone 150 nights out of the year. That's not easy or convenient for her. She supports that. And I've got a group of friends and mentors that continue to push me to say, you know, is that good enough? Are you at the top of your game right now, or can you get better? And they keep pushing you every single day to show up and sharpen the saw.
So how does meditation fit into all this? Is that something that you, like actively practice? We don't have to talk about this if you don't want to.
No, we can.
I feel like meditation, mindfulness, all those sorts of things, are becoming buzz words, but there is, at least, personally, I feel like there's real value to those things. But it gets kind of pushed into the realm of like crystals, and incense, and bead stores, and I don't think people really understand what it is.
Yeah. So I mean, you're absolutely right. Meditation has been something that has been a part of my life for probably the last five, six years. But in the last three years, it became much more of a daily practice built into an everyday routine, where every morning when you wake up, it's just you have it baked in and it's 15 minutes, and you go to your spot. And technology is helping today. There's a lot more opportunities for guided meditations and practices that kind of help you get into it and lead you through it. But it constantly comes back to this idea of be here now.
Be in the moment. This is the only time we have. How much time do we spend worrying about the future, or so feeling bad about the past? I ask people that all the time. The mental track that's playing, how much of your time is out here worrying about the future or feeling bad about past decisions? And you start to do some inventory on your thoughts, and I was there for a long time in both of those spaces. When it becomes painful enough, that's when it kind of pulls you into the present moment.
And oh, gosh, the only place I can function, the only place I can actually take on these challenges here in the present moment. And it helps fuel my writing. It helps fuel the content that comes out in the speeches. And it especially helps from a speaking standpoint when I walk on stage. Because that's a place where it's easy for your mind to start to go to an area of are these people, do they think I'm not worthy, I'm not smart enough, I'm full of baloney? I'm losing them.
Fill in the blank. That story track is running when you should be in the moment speaking. And so I go through a routine of literally being mindful, and in my steps as I walk on stage, I want to feel my foot, my steps, literally walking across the stage. And when I stop, and I set to get ready to address the audience, I want to feel my base and my feet on the floor. Because it pulls me in the present moment.
And so these are just a couple of simple things of where it's active in my life. It's very top of mind to pull me into the present moment. In fact, I just got some fresh ink work done that literally represents, is symbolic for me, of the idea of be here now. When we get crazed in our day, it pulls me into the present as a reminder. It's a constant reminder.
That's cool. So you mentioned, briefly, how that helps fuel your process of writing. Tell us more about, in terms of producing that content, like you have a day-to-day process, is it when inspiration strikes? Like, what does that look like?
So it varies because of the travel and the client work. But I can tell you this. It definitely cannot be based around when inspiration strikes, because it's few and far between. You cannot wait around for inspiration to strike. It's kind of the whole idea of creativity an imagination, the idea of heating it up is something I think about a lot. In order to heat it up and get it to come, you got to just like get into it.
So if you've ever been in a brainstorming session, you start out and you're kind of sluggish, and it takes a little bit to heat the room up, to heat yourself up. And that kind of holds true for me, too. and so part of it is having good people to constantly be talking about ideas with and pushing things around. I get a lot of inspiration from reading other people's work. So the more I read, you start connecting dots. You've got an idea that's over here in your head, you read a story from someone that kind of triggers that.
And so the thing that I am I'm trying to get better at is, you gotta write this stuff down. And everybody knows, ah, a Eureka moment in the shower, write it down. But it's even more so for me. I get hit by ideas in conversations with people all the time. In fact, I was just, if we go back to the Generations piece, I was having a really interesting breakfast with a couple of Gen Xers before a meeting one morning.
And they were talking about this idea of vacation time and balance in their life, which is a big subject for Xers. Xers really drove work-life balance. And I had one of the Xers in the room in total kind of skeptical style. It's like I go on vacation, let me tell you what my vacation looks like. Vacation looks like I sneak away, and tell my wife I'm going to the coffee shop, and I'm checking my work email. But I have to do it. I have to sneak away, because I don't want to get grief from the wife.
Or I can't tell you how many emails I get from people that say, you know, I'm really sorry. I know you're on vacation, but– dot dot dot. They're like, you can't get away. You can't unplug. And in that breakfast, I'm sitting there, uh-huh, capturing all. And I'm telling them, I'm laughing, I'm like, oh, my gosh, you guys just inspired the next two articles. Like, this is incredible. You've got to capture it in the moment, because the truth is, had I not wrote that down, I don't know that I would have remembered it.
Yeah, the moment's gone.
So you've got to grab them. You've got to grab them when they come. So those things all kind of fuel this process of if you're going to be a commentator on what's happening in the world of work, not just the generations, but the world of work and the future of work, you've got to be mindful and listening to these conversations.
Right, yeah, I mean, that leads back to that idea of presence that we were talking about.
If you weren't tapped in, that's just going to go by.
The moment's gone.
But who are the authors that inspire you? Or do you follow blogs, or websites you regularly look at? What are your resources for that?
Yeah. I mean, it's a broad, broad range. But I mentioned one of my good collaborators, Ryan Estes, earlier. He's a big inspiration of mine. I've watched his career over the last six, seven years. We launched about the same time. His ability to have tapped into his most authentic voice has been incredible and inspiring to watch. So he's definitely somebody that I follow.
Someone else that I follow that probably doesn't get a whole lot of buzz mainstream is Jacob Morgan in the Whole Future of Workspace. He just wrote a new book called The Future of Work, which is great. He puts out a lot of great content. I love to follow his stuff. Gary Vaynerchuk is loud and crazy, but always inspiring in terms of, if you ever feel like you need a kick in the pants to get to work and do the work, he's definitely your guy.
And then there's just the guys that have been around forever. The Maxwells, Jim Rohn, the old school dudes who, kind of classics, are always inspiring me as well.
We already kind of touched on the teleprompter leadership.
Yeah, we did a little bit.
Yeah. But again, I feel like that's a potential area of kind of like, generational divide or disconnect, where people want this level of authenticity. They don't want to see someone who's polished and overly rehearsed. And I wonder if that also is connected with the idea of people allowing themselves to be vulnerable. The CEOs that just want to be the old school stoic CEOs, not realizing that people can't relate to them. And that people want to see some chinks the armor sometimes.
It helps them relate. I don't really know where I'm going with that.
No, I'm glad you brought it up, though, because you're referencing this idea of teleprompter leadership. And so what that is, an article that I wrote recently after I did a series of annual events in the beginning of the year. Kickoff events, sales events, and I just noticed an alarming number of CEOs or heads of business units coming out and reading, there were literally prompters, like you'd see in a Presidential Address.
And they're reading word for word from the prompter. And it's like perfectly curated language from the communications department that had probably been cleared by legal, and it's the most disingenuos thing you've ever heard. And you could just– it always bothered me, but it wasn't until I had a couple of people come up to me after the event, and I had delivered my session.
And they're like, you know, we so appreciated, not just your content, but the fact that you just came out and spoke from the heart. It didn't look like it was rehearsed at all. And the fact that they like, pointed that out, I was like, wow, people are recognizing and noticing this.
These leaders who, and it comes from a couple of things. It comes from the fact, like they feel like they think they have to be perfect, that they can't be vulnerable, that they need to totally nail this perfectly scripted– you know, the corporate mantra for 2015 is all in on blah, blah, blah. And it's like, nobody cares about that. Like, just come out and speak from the heart. And you don't have to be a public speaker.
Like, sometimes I think leaders get hung up on that, of like, I'm not a public speaker. I need the help. And say, you don't have to be. Just come out and speak from the heart about what's really– what are you excited about for this year? What are you freaked out about this year? Like, so many leaders are so worried about being not vulnerable, it's like, trust me, your people already kind of know most of the bad stuff. And, yes, you're a public company, and you can't reveal everything, like, there's some realities to that, but most of us are not in public companies. And they can deal with their own stresses on their front.
But if you're leading five people in a five-person office, and your willingness to share with them the reality of where the financials are, how open and how transparent are you willing to be? Because |'ve met inspiring leaders who've literally said, I'm creating a culture where there is absolutely nothing that you cannot ask me. I have a true open door policy.
I will tell you anything that you want to know. Your only responsibility in that equation, is that you have to behave like an adult. So if I tell you the truth, that means you can't freak out, and be a child, and start the rumor mill. You're going to handle the information like an adult. I will treat like an adult, you've got to act like an adult. But I'll tell you anything.
Because the truth is, when we don't tell people things, when we leave that black hole, what do we fill it with?
Rumor.
Correct. Because the human mind will not leave it blank. We will fill it in with a story. And I ask people all the time, do your people fill that in with a super, rosy, awesome, positive, game-changing, winning story? Or do they fill it with the worst nightmare ever?
Always the latter.
Always the latter. It's going to be a train wreck. It's going to be a crash. The business is going under. I'm going to lose a job. I'm going to lose my house that's what they fill it in with. So if you want them walking around thinking about that, because then you know where engagement goes, leave it blank. Or be willing to be vulnerable, be willing to be authentic, tell people what's really going on, lead with authenticity, lead with honesty, and you're going to get better buy-in and your engagements going up. I've seen it time and time again.
So how are women the future of work?
Well, so it's funny, shortly after I wrote Teleprompter Leadership, I attended a series of events led by female leaders. And I was blown away at their willingness to be vulnerable, and to just like speak from the heart. And it's not that men are excluded from this. There are some, but it's just like, I was like, man, so many of the big kind of shifts that we're seeing this need for more authenticity transparency, being willing to share information, help people up, like women just get it.
And part of the reason why they also just get the whole generations thing, they get millennials' desire to have a seat at the table, is because they fought that battle, right?
They get it.
It's still fresh.
It's still fresh. It's still happening. They have the empathy, they can totally relate. It's there now. And so I'm kind of– and it's funny. I've had a couple of clients, I wrote a piece on that why we need a female leadership movement. And I didn't realize it would get this buzz that it's gotten. But people, like, yes, yes, we need someone to say yes, more of that, yes, please step up. And so I'm kind of trying to do a little bit of a battle call for women to say, own that, and help show us knucklehead men the way in being a little bit more vulnerable.
Listen to us, just two dudes talking about feminism.
I know, right?
Total experts. A couple of questions, though, and then we can wrap it up. I know you had a long day. So looking back on your career thus far, what are you proudest of? And then, like, what's next?
Wow. You and these questions. Nobody's asked me before. What am I proudest of? I think on one hand I'm proudest of the fact that I feel like I'm living my most authentic life. That I was willing to forgo comfort and ease in money in the beginning to pursue something bigger that felt totally like a long shot and really painful, right? Go back to donating blood platelets to like get by.
And now that feels like forever ago, but to get to be in this spot now where I get to wake up every day and say, what do I want to create next? What do I think would be important for the world to hear next within the context of a field that I can play? You know, the beauty of the world we live in today is because we have access to so much information. You can become, right, if you're interested in a subject, you can go deep, and you can pull the research, and you can make yourself an expert to add value to people's lives.
And so you have that opportunity to say, where's the next opportunity? What are people needing? What are people wanting? And how can we add value there? So I'm probably proudest of that. I think I'm proud of the fact that I've been able to maintain a partnership with my wife to create this dream job, and at the same time have the dream girl. And convince her to give me the opportunity and the space, and she's done that. And that's something I have to work on every single day. And so to get to have both of those at the same time, I do feel like one of the luckiest people in the world.
Fantastic. So anything we haven't touched on that you want to talk about?
What have we not touched on?
Politics, religion.
Yeah, I think the last time we come back, maybe we get into a little bit more of the sensitive subjects, and we open up that can of worms for sure.
Sounds good. Well, Seth Mattison, how do people find you online, learn more about what you do?
Super easy. Everything is just Seth Mattison, S-E-T-H M-A-T-T-I-S-O-N. So Seth Mattison.com and @SethMattison on Twitter and Instagram. Easy to find, easy to follow. I try to be interesting and funny. It doesn't always happen.
We all do our best.
Well, wonderful. Thank you so much for your time.
Thanks for having me.
Filed Under: spotlight
A series devoted to illuminating the Why, How, and What that drives the innovative thinking and actions of thought leaders from a wide variety of industries and backgrounds.


text:
A straight up guide to the Apple Watch for women - what you need to know
What broads need to know about Apple's line of smartwatches
By Sophie Charara @sophiecharara
By Sophie Charara
@sophiecharara
We're weeks away from an Apple Watch Series 4 announcement and the Apple Watch is still pretty much the only smartwatch the women in my life - the ones who aren't in tech - ask me about.
Some noticed the sly Apple Watch app appear on their iPhone homescreen. Some have seen adverts and fashion editorials in Vogue and billboards on the street. Some read tech blogs but just haven't been convinced a smartwatch could fit into their life until now.
Most of the reviews (written by men, for men) of the original Apple Watch, Series 2 and the current Series 3 (designed by men) will have made some assumptions. Everyone has the same sized wrist and the muscles to lug around the same weight of Watch all day, everyone has pockets which allow them to feel their smartphone's vibrations when they get a WhatsApp, no-one can enjoy a smartwatch if it doesn't have a killer app, specs matter most.
Oh my, what a dainty wrist
Well. I have a smaller wrist than pretty much all male tech reviewers. And Pebble (RIP) and a few recent Fossil Group hybrids aside, every single smartwatch I've worn so far has looked - and felt - a bit too big. Even the old Moto 360, which I had a real soft spot for. I don't even have the smallest wrists in tech journalism - that prize goes to Kashfia Kabir at What Hi-Fi?
All the Apple Watch models I've tried so far feel lovely to wear.
I can move my wrist about without feeling constricted or shackled to tech. They are light but don't feel cheap. Well made. The display is crisp, colourful and the pixels look very close to the glass. The precision of the finishing of the Digital Crown is impressive, even on the lesser models. Even just moving your finger over the smooth, curved screen to swipe through Glances feels nice. It's that Cupertino sheen that spec-heads pretend doesn't exist.
The Apple Watch models so far differ in terms of a millimeter here and a millimeter there, I can always tell the difference, but they're still leagues ahead of rivals in terms of size and what they can do plus, like I said, wonderfully finished.
In each instance, I've been wearing the 38mm model, which has a bit of a Casio vibe about it. It's small, it's neat and it's geeky but in a socially acceptable, Urban Outfitters kind of way.
One more practical point - the clasps. I spend a stupid number of hours a day typing on a MacBook Air and almost every wearable gets me worried I'm going to scratch it up. The silicon Sport band tucks in for worry-free wrist resting though the same can't be said for some of the swankier bands.
The best Apple Watch straps for women
All that said, the cheapest Watch is still not much to swoon over so to get the look you've seen on the models, be warned you might need to spend a bit extra on straps. Depending on what kind of wardrobe - and budget - you have, the Watch can look seriously fancy or hipster or business.
Read this: The best Apple Watch bands and third party straps
Apple puts out its own collections of new straps pretty regularly, brands like Coach and Toms have made their own watch straps and there's a bunch of third party straps on Etsy so there's plenty of opportunity to change up your look. I don't think I'll get slapped around the face if I say: a lot of women are interested in staying on trend when it comes to the colours and styles of their accessories.
Coach Strap In Signature Canvas
Coach's Apple Watch straps for summer 2018 include the khaki leather Strap In Signature Canvas (left) and the dusty rose Strap With Heart Applique (right) - both for the 38mm Apple Watch only - as well as the mid-summer bonus band by way of a khaki brown strap with gold charms attached, specifically a Coach C and a dogtag with Coach on it.
From , coach.com
Coach Apple Watch Strap With Prints
You can also get cute Coach straps for the Apple Watch with options like its retro cherry, floral, leaf and Rexy the dinosaur prints and illustrations with detail stitching.
, coach.com
Casetify Classic Lady
There's some nice, preppy, stripey options from Casetify and Clockwork such as the Casetify Classic Lady, made from a refined plastic, above. That's available for both 38mm and 42mm sized Apple Watches.
| casetify.com
X-Doria Action Band
And for running and workouts, if you don't fancy Nike's in-your-face option or Apple's own sports styles (below), there's a lovely two-tone X-Doria Action Band that's made of perforated soft silicone for breathability when you're sweating it out. Available in three colours.
$24.95, x-doria.com | Amazon
Your life might not include pockets
If you are a woman who wears jeans (or trousers, or city shorts) every single day without fail, skip this section. I wear dresses and they don't always have pockets in. This is just a sad fact but truth is, it's just not always practical to put a pocket in.
So to all those people who say - what's the point of a device, which shows you messages and Twitter notifications on your wrist when your phone is in your pocket? I say - my phone isn't in my pocket because I don't have a pocket.
When I'm not wearing a wearable I have my phone either glued to my hand (impractical, easy to mug), in an easy access bag slung across my body (so-so) or on the surface in front of me. That gets rude if I'm having dinner in a fancy restaurant and all the cutlery is already making the table cluttered. And the point is amplified when you consider that you can get an LTE Apple Watch Series 3 that doesn't even need to be tethered to your phone via Bluetooth to make calls, send messages etc.
When it comes to discreet notifications, the Taptic Engine puts other smartwatches to shame by its sheer elegance – the vibration when you get an alert is forceful enough that you notice but so subtle next to rivals. Apple's also used this its haptics expertise to make its new Breathe app - which pulses to help you carry out breathing exercises - really delightful too.
And unlike Samsung and LG watches, the Apple Watch doesn't light up with an alert regardless, only if you turn the device to have a look. When you're out in the evening, this is the kind of feature that makes it wearable.
It boils down to this: if you live the sort of life where you'd love to outsource checking travel and remembering appointments to gadgets, the Apple Watch will slot in nicely. That might be because you're a high powered city dweller who zips across town in Ubers, jumps onto British Airways flights to meetings and literally doesn't have the time to be constantly opening up the right app to get the information you need right now. Or it might be that you're more like me - scatter brained and terrible at life admin – either way, the Apple Watch serves your needs better than its rivals in a few ways.
Having used Wear OS (which used to be called Android Wear), I did miss Google Assistant, and its mapping, calendar and search smarts, for exactly this reason while using the Apple Watch. But the Siri watch face saves time and presents you with what you need to know without digging around in apps.
Work it, girl (or don't)
Discussions over the health and fitness features have been done to death on the internet. So I'm just going to add a few points that I hope are relevant to most women without offending anyone.
As other, wiser women have pointed out we are the gender most likely to quantify ourselves, so wearables that tap into this could be particularly useful to women. We have reproductive cycles, which have needed monitoring for various reasons for a Very Long Time. When Apple Health was first announced, it included bizarre metrics like copper intake but not periods. Naughty but this was updated to be included in 2015. Still, now Fitbit has rolled out its initial female health tracking features with bold ambitions to tie it into sleep, stress and activity for the future, we'd like to see more on this from Apple too.
Another sad fact - most of us can't eat as many calories as men while staying healthy so food tracking is perhaps more popular and/or important.
We're yet to see this integrated in a truly useful way, though as a start you can get the popular MyFitnessPal app for the Apple Watch - once downloaded, you can see a glance of your nutrition info for the day so far as well as calories remaining for the day. I'm still waiting for a food tracking app that lets you input via voice notes, syncs with a real programme and gives you personalised tips and warnings, though.
I said earlier that one assumption made in reviews is that specs matter. They do but different specs matter to different people. The original Apple Watch doesn't have GPS but the Series 3 does so if you want an all-purpose smartwatch, which can also accurately track runs, this could be it.
The Series 3 is also waterproof to 50m so you can take it shallow swimming in a pool or the sea. Still, because the 1-2 day battery life on each model means you need to charge it every night, there's still no built in sleep tracking. You can get third party apps that handle this but it's still a weird omission in 2018. After acquiring the startup Beddit, though, that's no doubt only a matter of time.
If you get fed up of Apple's pretty but only somewhat useful Workout and Activity apps, there's already Watch functionality for Strava, Endomondo, Runtastic and calorie counting from Lifesum. If you have the Series 2 or Series 3, check which apps actually support its GPS.
I've already talked about Breathe but another small thing I've liked about Apple's own fitness tools is the haptic reminders to stand up throughout the day. Whether or not you'll love or hate this is such a personal matter but for me, it's a good 'un.
The one big overall advantage is still Apple Health, which gathers everything together on your iPhone, from both the phone and the Watch. It has more partners than Google Fit and most of the big names are onboard.
What ladies need to know
Whether it's niche tech like pregnancy trackers or general health and fitness tracking with a smartwatch like this one, wearables have a lot to offer women. There's even a concept bracelet to help when you get really hot or cold on the way in to work.
The thing about wearables is that we really should be aiming to write a personalised review for every single reader, picking out stylish bands, cool watch faces and useful apps for you. I recommend every reads our brilliant, in depth Apple Watch Series 3 review to get more info before you buy.
The Apple Watch isn't perfect and there's plenty of work to do for future versions. But it's actually the most promising smartwatch so far in terms of appealing to women. The form factor works. The price is still high but it feels more reasonable considering what you get. This is one tech accessory I can and do see my female friends wearing.
Still, this was always going to be tricky as we are not all the same. I know women with iPhones, with handmedown phones, with tablets, with Bluetooth headphones, with sparkly cases. I know women who wear Michael Kors watches, Michael Kors smartwatches, Casio watches, women who code, women (and men) who panic at the sight of an Android homescreen. And there's certainly more competition in the form of smaller, slimmer, style focused hybrids and fully round(!) Wear OS watches from Fossil Group designers - Kate Spade, Diesel, Marc Jacobs and Fossil itself.
You'll know if the Apple Watch will fit into your life within minutes of playing with one in an Apple Store. Read this sentence. You can flick through Instagram photos from your feed on the Watch. Or this one. One glance will tell you your Uber is arriving. Or this one. You can store music on the Watch and pair with Bluetooth headphones for a run. Does that sound awesome? Or make you feel a bit sick? Or make you want to hide away and carry on not getting involved? Exactly.
Are you a woman wearing the Apple Watch? We'd love to hear your thoughts on the design, specs, features, health and fitness apps of the Apple Watch, including the Series 3 - or anything else you've noticed.
Sophie was Wareable's associate editor. She joined the team from Stuff magazine where she was an in-house reviewer. For three and a half years, she tested every smartphone, tablet, and robot vacuum that mattered.
A fan of thoughtful design, innovative apps, and that Spike Jonze film, she is currently wondering how many fitness tracker reviews it will take to get her fit. Current bet: 19.
Sophie has also written for a host of sites, including Metro, the Evening Standard, the Times, the Telegraph, Little White Lies, the Press Association and the Debrief.
She now works for Wired.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
using Newtonsoft.Json;

namespace Telegram.Bot.Types
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Upon receiving a message with this object, Telegram clients will hide the current custom keyboard and display the default letter-keyboard. By default, custom keyboards are displayed until a new keyboard is sent by a bot. An exception is made for one-time keyboards that are hidden immediately after the user presses a button (see ReplyKeyboardMarkup).
    /// </summary>
    [JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
    public class ReplyKeyboardHide : ReplyMarkup
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Requests clients to hide the custom keyboard
        /// </summary>
        [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "hide_keyboard", Required = Required.Always)]
        public bool HideKeyboard { get; set; }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's tenure at the Justice Department may be coming to a close and with it his oversight of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation after a series of reports Monday.
California's Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Friday, countering the Trump administration's request to reconsider a liberal judge's ruling that keeps the rescinded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in place.
Breitbart News Senior Legal Editor Ken Klukowski joined SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam Friday on Breitbart News Daily, discussing Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday granted review in the legal challenge to President Donald Trump's permanent policy restricting entry into the United States from the residents of eight terror-prone nations, in what will be a historic case on presidential authority, national security, the role of the courts in immigration, and the Constitution's guarantee of religious liberty.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco made good on the DOJ pledge to make a petition directly to the Supreme Court to reinstate President Donald Trump's decision to end Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The Trump-Sessions U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) filed an emergency application at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to block a lower court's extraordinary order requiring the Trump administration to facilitate immediate abortions for two more illegal alien teenagers.
The Supreme Court temporarily blocked lower court orders late on Friday that would have forced disclosure of legally protected government documents—possibly involving President Donald Trump—regarding ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program for illegal aliens.
U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed a petition at the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, asking the justices to erase the lower-court decision holding that an illegal alien caught crossing the border has the right in America to an abortion facilitated by the government and taxpayers.
WASHINGTON—The Senate confirmed over five dozen of President Trump's executive branch nominations on Thursday before breaking for August recess, more than doubling the number of the president's picks in place to implement his agenda.
WASHINGTON—Tuesday, the Supreme Court will begin its first sitting in which the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will reflect the views and priorities of President Donald Trump, inaugurating a new direction in American law.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. the Supreme Court is expected to release orders in the three final cases on its docket, ending the term without Justice Antonin Scalia and highlighting the electoral stakes for November.


Sometimes you may want to host a font locally, instead of using a service like Google Fonts. This article will take you through the steps to do this.
For the purpose of this article, we'll be using Google Fonts. However, this process will work for any kind of font file you might have.
So the first step is to download the font we want to use. For Google Fonts, this tool is incredibly useful.
At the top left, search for the font you want to download.
Once you click on your font, you'll be taken to a page where you can choose your variants, and download the files.
When choosing variants, be sure to only check the ones you need. The more you check, the heavier your page will be.
The next step on the page is to copy our CSS, but we're going to skip that for now, and head to step 4, which is downloading the files.
This will download a .zip file to your computer, which you can extract.
Note: If you're comfortable with uploading files to your server via FTP, you can skip this step and simply upload your font files to your child theme.
Now that we have our font files, we need to upload them to our server.
By default, the WordPress Media Library doesn't allow us to upload font files. This is due to security concerns with some of these files.
However, we can temporarily allow these files to be uploaded by adding the below function to our website. Once we're done, it's best to remove this function.
Learn how to add PHP functions here.
Now we can upload our font files into the Media Library.
Now that our files are uploaded, let's grab the File URL to one of them.
Now, let's remove the filename, and take note of the URL for the next step.
Alright, we're almost done! Now we need to reference our fonts in our CSS.
Let's go back to our Google Fonts Helper website where we downloaded the font files, and head back up to step 3.
Under all of the CSS, you'll see a field for the folder prefix. In there, we're going to add the URL we took note of above.
Now above this field, copy all of the provided CSS, and add it to your website.
Learn how to add CSS here.
Take note of the font-family field in your CSS, we're going to need this exact name below. You don't have to keep what's in there by default – you can change it to anything you want.
So, our fonts are uploaded, and referenced in our CSS. We could now write our own CSS, and reference our new font family.
However, if you want to use our Typography controls in the Customizer, we need to add the font into our list of fonts.
In our CSS, we took note of our font-family name. In this case, it's Open Sans.
We're done! Now when you go into your Typography settings in the Customizer, you'll find your font-family name within the System Fonts section of the dropdown.


text:
Catholic Women Deacons? Why Not?
With the announcement today that Pope Francis has set up a commission to explore the possibility of women deacons, here are some thoughts on the matter.
Throughout his pontificate the Pope has called for women to be granted more prominent roles in the church and for the Catholic church to continue to develop a positive "theology of women." It emerges that Phyllis Zagano is one of the members of the commission. Unfortunately, Professor Zagano is not an objective participant. for a long time she has been a passionate advocate for the innovation of female deacons in the Catholic Church. One hopes that her biased position will be balanced by other members of the commission.
In a 2012 article arguing for the ordination of women to the diaconate, Zagano reported on a private conversation with then Cardinal Ratzinger. When asked about the possibility of women deacons he replied, "It is under study." Are we right in pushing gently for women in the diaconate, or is it just as impossible as women's ordination to the priesthood?
The question is clouded by the strong feelings on both sides of the issue of women's ordination. At his website former priest John Wijngaards, an outspoken advocate for women priests, argues strongly for women to be ordained as deacons. Other progressive Catholic groups also push for the diaconate to be open to women, but it is their advocacy which makes conservative Catholics reluctant to even ask the question. They see that the Anglican Church first had deaconesses who then became deacons who were eventually ordained as priests and bishops. Conservatives contend that women deacons are the first step onto a slippery slope that leads to female bishops.
Putting the politics and passion aside, what are the historical arguments in favor of women deacons? The Scriptural evidence is interesting. Jesus chose men as his apostles, so women cannot be priests. However, it was the apostles who chose deacons in Acts chapter 6, so arguably the bishops, who are the successors of the apostles, could choose who they want as deacons. Although the apostles only chose men in Acts 6, in the epistle to the Romans St Paul mentions, "Phoebe, a deaconess in the church of Cenchreae." St Jerome translates the word diaconos (deacon) as indicating that Phoebe was "in the ministry of the church".
This leads us to ask what exactly the ministry of deaconess was in the early church. The best information is found in a collection of liturgical and disciplinary regulations called The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles. Most of the document dates from before the year 300, and we learn that, like the deacons, the deaconesses were involved in administering the charitable work of the church. They also had the job of maintaining modesty and decorum at baptisms. Since the convert was baptized naked, a woman was required to assist the female catechumens.
.In The Constitutions the Bishop is exhorted, "Ordain also a deaconess who is faithful and holy, for the ministrations towards women." The bishop or priest was to "dip them in the water" and "…a deacon receive the man, and a deaconess the woman, that so the conferring of this inviolable seal may take place with a becoming decency" (Book III, Sections XV, XVI).
However, it should be observed that the role of deacon and deaconess were not interchangeable. For instance, the Apostolic Constitutions specify, "A deaconess does not bless, nor perform anything belonging to the office of presbyters or deacons, but only is to keep the doors, and to minister to the presbyters in the baptizing of women on account of decency" (Book VIII, Section XXVIII). While the bishop is to "ordain" deaconesses there is a significant difference between their ordination and that of the deacons.
The "ordination rite" for deaconesses recorded inThe Apostolic Constitutions references the holy women of the Old Testament and the Blessed Virgin and invokes the Holy Spirit to empower her for her work. The ordination prayer for deacons (unlike that of the prayer for the deaconesses) makes specific prayer for the deacon to be prepared for the "higher office" of the priesthood.
Therefore the evidence from the New Testament and the early church could provide arguments for women being ordained as deaconesses. As the order of permanent deacon was re-established in modern times, the order of deaconess could also be rejuvenated. Although canon law does not presently permit it, the law could be changed. Theoretically, the Catholic church could re-establish a distinct order of deaconess, and advocates would not be shy in pointing out the undoubted practical benefits from such a decision.
A full discussion, however, demands that we would have to question why such a change would be necessary. Continue Reading
PatheosDwight2016-08-02T08:03:50-04:00August 2nd, 2016|Categories: Patheos|Comments Off on Catholic Women Deacons? Why Not?


text:
Q: django rest framework filter on foregin table i'm writing API in django rest framework, i want to do a filter on a foreign key table.
want to do a filter in the scripts_details table as per the user. since scripts_details is not having user, i am trying to filter in the script tables. but it is not happening.
i tired   return ScriptDetails.objects.filter(script=scriptid, script.user=self.request.user)
Models.py
class Scripts(models.Model):
    tutorial = models.OneToOneField(TutorialDetail)
    language = models.ForeignKey(Language)
    status = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    data_file = models.FileField(upload_to='scripts',blank=True)
    user = models.ForeignKey(User,related_name='user_id')

class ScriptDetails(models.Model):
    cue=models.TextField()
    narration=models.TextField()
    order=models.PositiveIntegerField()
    script=models.ForeignKey('Scripts', on_delete = models.CASCADE)

serializer.py
class ScriptsDetailSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):

  class Meta:
    model=ScriptDetails
    fields=('cue','narration','order','script')

views.py

class ScriptsDetailsList(generics.ListCreateAPIView):
    serializer_class=ScriptsDetailSerializer

    def get_queryset(self):
      scriptid = self.kwargs.get('scriptid')
      return ScriptDetails.objects.filter(script=scriptid)

urls.py
url(r'^api/scriptsdetails/(?P<scriptid>[0-9]+)/', views.ScriptsDetailsList.as_view())

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Ted DiBiase
Buzz Break: 2017 Leaf Buyback Wrestling autograph cards
January 31, 2018 BlowoutBuzz1 Comment
The box: 2017 Leaf Buyback Wrestling autograph cards
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November 9, 2017 BlowoutBuzz1 Comment
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Create a bohemian look with this beautiful pink rose quartz bullet stone necklace. An antique silver chain with a pale pink quartz pendant set in a bead cap. Each crystal may vary slightly in colour. Rose quartz is a healing crystal and is often known as the love stone. Rose quartz is used to raise self-esteem and has properties of love and peace. This is available in different lengths, perfect for layering up! Matching ring available.
Bullet stone measures approximately 3.3cm in length and approximately 1cm in width.
Please select the necklace drop length you require. If you would like a different chain length, please send us a message.


text:
Q: Unable to replace a string via regex through a subroutine I am trying to replace square brackets in a string with an empty string. which means if a string is [SECTION], I want to convert it to SECTION.
I have tried this and it works,
my $sectionName =~ tr/[]//d;
print "$sectionName\n";

However, when I tried to create a general subroutine for replacing strings, it didn't work out. Here's what I tried,
sub strReplace
{
    my $string = shift;
    my $target = shift;
    my $replacement = shift;

    $target = quotemeta $target;
    $replacement = quotemeta $replacement;

    $string =~ tr/$target/$replacement/d;

    return $string;
}

I am calling the sub like this,
# the string "[SECTION]" below is intended to be replaced by a variable
my $sectionName = strReplace("[SECTION]", "[]", "");
print "$sectionName\n";

However, instead of getting the replaced string, I am still getting the old one, i.e, [SECTION]. What am I doing wrong? (PS: Perl version 5.14.2)

A: Perl's tr/// operator does not support variables.  You can find various strategies to work around this here:  Perl's tr/// is not doing what I want
To summarize, you have two main options:

*

*Wrap your tr/// in an eval.

*Convert your tr/// into a substitution using s///.

A: If your main case for strReplace is actually just to remove characters, I'd write a less-general-purpose sub that does that.  Otherwise, a s/// conversion that can both remove and replace looks like this:
sub strReplace
{
    my $string = shift;
    my $target = shift;
    my $replacement = shift;

    my %replacement;
    @replacement{ split //, $target } = split //, $replacement;

    $string =~ s{ ([\Q$target\E]) }{ $replacement{$1} // '' }gxe;

    return $string;
}

The substitution repeatedly (because of the /g flag) looks for [\Q$target\E] (a character in a class of any the characters in $target, any special characters automatically escaped if necessary by \Q...\E), and replaces it with the value found by looking in the hash, or just removes it if it wasn't found in the hash.


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text:
Q: db_fetch_array() vs. db_fetch_object() Drupal provides these two methods for iterating through a db_query() result. For example,
$users = array();
$result = db_query('SELECT uid FROM {users} WHERE status=0 AND login=0');
while ($row = db_fetch_object($result)) {
    $users[] = $row->uid;
}

However, it seems that db_fetch_array($result) could be used just the same here, only with $row['uid'] on the next line.
What is the difference between these two methods? Are they completely interchangeable?
Source: http://api.drupal.org/api/group/database/6

A: The difference is that db_fetch_array() returns an array, whereas db_fetch_object() returns an object. Depending on the use-case, you might need one or the other.
It appears, at least given the snippet you provided, they are indeed—with a change in syntax like you mentioned—interchangeable for your use-case.
Edit
Drupal's db_fetch_object() and db_fetch_array() are inherited from PHP's *_fetch_object and *_fetch_array: Drupal merely abstracts PHP's database specific versions so a Drupal developer doesn't have to care what database is used in the backend.
So, the same reasons why they both exist in PHP are the same reasons why they exist in Drupal. They provide flexibility to developers: some use-cases require arrays, some require objects.
In Drupal core, db_fetch_object() is favored far more than db_fetch_array(): you can see how each are used within core by going to each function's API page and clicking on the header n functions call functionname.
The reason for this bias towards db_fetch_object is mainly preference and ease of maintenance: it's less characters to say $object->property than it is to say $object['property']. A lot of code style in Drupal is based on years of convention.
You can use either, but think whether it makes sense, semantically, for your data to be an object or an array. For example, if you wanted to take advantage of PHP's plethora of array functions (like array_merge(), which doesn't have a simple object analogue), you might opt to buck convention and use db_fetch_array().
All things being equal, *_fetch_object() is identical to *_fetch_array in terms of speed, but the resulting object from the former takes up slightly more memory than the resulting array from the latter.