What makes something epic? Or awesome? Or just plain brilliant? Have you ever noticed that some new initiatives seem to capture the imaginations and dreams of people – while others simply wither on a vine and never seem to get anywhere? How can you tell if something is going to be awesome, before you start making it happen? Your gut and intuition can get you started, but that will only carry you so far. Your intuition needs more along the way to keep it happy.
You need little flags, things to let people know what’s going on and let them know it’s going to be awesome. Little things you’ve done which will make it ‘epic for sure.’
This could be a key speaker at an event you’re running, the presence of your best friend at a dinner party or a special feature that makes your new offering just zing. The key is to ask yourself – “what will make this epic, for sure?” Think about that ONE thing that will make your project awesome – and then just go and do that. Whatever else happens, doesn’t matter. If you’re proud and pumped to be doing it, the universe will take care of the rest.
At futuresummit, we got 10 of the top twitter users in Australia along for the 2 days. Once that was done, whatever happened was going to be awesome…we didn’t need to worry about the outcome. As a result, #futuresummit ended up being the second highest trending topic in the world over both conference days. It was epic.
So when you next have that ‘awesome idea’ and you’re wondering how to go about making it actually awesome – think about what will make it epic for sure…and just do that.
Photo credit to Ross Hill: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberhill/3555090851/
The Squiggly Line 
Wow, that was quite a weekend! Another good example of you getting the team together.
I like the idea but what if the result wasn’t ‘awesome’ or ‘epic’. It’s only with hindsight that we can claim this glory, and often it’s not something that’s been the goal all along, it’s that something extra, the final little surprise that makes it truly epic.
@Rose – I agree to a point, but I think the idea of making something ‘epic for sure’ is to guarantee that it will be awesome, before it has happened. So many times, people sign up for something, unsure of whether or not they will enjoy it or get any real benefit from using the service. I know many people who have had similar feelings about twitter, for example.
🙂
I think the idea is, make it epic for sure and then the small things can really shine through, because people are already in a state where they think what they’re doing is great. The small things will still only ever remain the small things if people are not excited about what you’re offering.
Good to see @rexster front and centre
Hehehe – I thought you would like that one
🙂
Excellent advice Steve! I agree that ‘awesomeness’ should be a key ingredient in any event even though it’s hard to predict it’s outcome. The flags are important as they make everyone involved feel they are part of the awesomeness. The classic example is Balsamiq. Peldi was sharing ‘flags’ about the product before he started on his blog, on Hacker News, through Twitter, that the product was felt epic when launched and still continues to be awesome. He calls it the ‘Golden Puzzle’ and I’m sure being awesome from the start is a very important piece to it.
Thanks Gaurav,
The Balsamiq example is a great one! I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. Peldi did a great job of sharing the little awesome things he was doing along the way, checking with people that they were actually awesome.
I bought Balsamiq as a direct result of reading his post about his first year, and the results his company was having. Now that I think about it, I purchased almost purely because I thought “wow, this thing sounds awesome”
Thanks for sharing Gaurav!
I would question whether trending or having 10 heavy twitter users was what was awesome about Future Summit. Surely it was a combination of all of the talented minds in the room, the incredible talks and the seamless organisation of the event.
Did everyone think trending or having twitterers attending made it epic?
This is not to say that trending is not a significant achievement that you should be proud of, more to highlight that I think future summit was successful and awesome despite the #futuresummit hashtag thrashing my timeline. 😛
Thanks Ned – yeah, you’re right of course – similar to the comments @rose was making above.
Of course, what makes something awesome is purely in the hands of the people that get to judge that. Rose was questioning whether you can ever actually make something awesome, before the event has happened.
The event itself was what helped make it awesome. It’s a very good point, which I left out of the main post – I’m glad you raised it. I guess I was looking at it from my perspective as a Community Manager at the ADC at the time.
And in that context, inviting those 10 people ensured we would have a great outcome, before the event. It helped draw new people to twitter, it helped us find and talk to attendees who were coming before they got the event and it took the conversation to a whole new audience (#hashtag thrashing and all!).
Thanks for the comments, it’s very illuminating to hear what people think of this concept. There appears a lot more grey than I thought.
🙂