A year ago today I met Trey Pennington: 26th May 2009.
We got talking on Twitter in early 2009, and when he was due to come over to England, we arranged to meet up. Trey actually did one better, and came down to Exeter for one of our first tweetups.
For those of you who know the history, it was the same day that Like Minds began. Trey suggested we do an event, hooked me up with Olivier (whose blog I had been reading for sometime), and we set the date of Friday 16th October 2009.
You know what I love about Trey and people like him? They connect like minded people together.
There’s a saying that you can be a king, or a king-maker. You only get to be king once, but you make many people kings. When I look at Trey I see a king maker, and it inspires me to do the same. Trey never seeks to build his own kingdom, he just helps others build theirs. Another friend I made, Chris Brogan, would call it being the elbow.
In fact, Trey so believes in making kings out of other people, that through doing just that he got to interview his hero (and almost everyone’s hero) Zig Ziglar recently, saying his classic line: “if you help others fulfil their passions, you’ll fulfil yours along the way.”
When I think about how much Trey means to me, as a friend and a person who kickstarted the vision that’s taken me thus far, I realise it’s far more rewarding, effective and exciting to be the king-maker, than trying to put yourself on the throne all the time.
While we’re here, I also want to shout out to my friends Ruairi Fullam and John Harvey, sat either side of Trey, who’ve also supported me continually and mimic Trey’s king-making talents.
So here’s to Trey. I love him, and I thank him.
I totally, agree with the fact, even tough I have not meet Trey in person yet;-) Thanks for sharing your love and gratitude, Scott.Trey deserves it all;-)
Ivana, Trey is one of the greatest servants I know – he continually serves people, helps them – and the greatest among us is the one that serves.Who is your “Trey”?
Oh, boy that is a tough question, Scott;-)I have been blessed with many “Treys” on my life's journey. My parents are for sure the best of all and they support me on my with all they have.Recently I have written a blog post about a person who have changed my life 5 and half years ago.BUTThe newest “Trey” and hero of mine is Ron Carucci, who has walked his talk and helped me to put 1st NGLS = Next Generation Leaders of Slovakia conference together last year in November. We “met” first time on Facebook in May 2009 and second meeting was face to face in Slovakia in November 2009, when Ron flew in with 2 teammates Josh and Jon, all the way from Seattle to Slovakia to facilitate 2 days conference for 100 young people in Slovakia…He believed in me, when no one did. He saw in me, what few could see. He dedicated his time to help “unknown” person from Slovakia to help to awaken the country…;-)
I love this story Ivana – love to hear about people who serve others.So, I love Run Carucci too!
Wow. Thank you Scott and Ivana both. What an incredibly wonderful way to start the day.
Glad ya'll have joined the “I love Trey Pennington” Club! Trey is as genuine as they come, warm, smart, and a real Giver! Looking forward to the publication of “Spitball Marketing,” as soon as we can get the guy to sit still long enough to complete it; the impending arrival of a grandchild just might do it! I've met very few people on Twitter who listen, engage, and help more than this southern gentlemen. We've had the opportunity to share IRL-time twice this year (once, thanks to SIBA and once thanks to @HowellMarketing) and each time I am simply awed. We plan on throwing him a celebratory book signing in Central PA!!
Trey is the gentleman of social media – period.I agree – I've met few people who engage like Trey
Very cool. Although I've seen the “plan” develop on twitter, I didn't know the rest of the story. Thanks for sharing this, Scott.
Hey CindyThanks for stopping by, really appreciate it
Yeah, it's quite a story. The fuller story is here: http://www.wearelikeminds.com/about/the-historyHave you been to Like Minds Cindy?
No, but it would be fun. I take the wahm moniker pretty seriously, at this point. I do enjoy reading what you guys are doing, though.
Hear, Hear Scott – Trey is a special person and has also had an affect on my life (albeit not as much as you
)Whenever anyone mentions his name that glowing, smiling personality that radiates from him comes to mind. You can do far worse than watching and learning from a master
Thank you all very much. You have brought (and still are bringing) smiles to my face. You also make me chuckle a little, too. While I am grateful for the opportunity to have enriched your lives some, it seems a bit ironic: as I think through our relationships, I'm the one who has been so blessed. Scott has taught me much about leadership, organization, passion, and hospitality. Alastair inspires hope and spreads joy through his careful attentiveness to others. Cindy serves as a role model for using social media to RE-connect with old friends and then for taking old friendships even deeper because of it. And everyone should also have a Kathy, too: someone who goes out of her way (like 500 miles one time and 700 or so another time) to be PRESENT to encourage. And Ivana is an inspiration as one who is tuned into the deepest needs of the next generation and then builds relationships around the world to help address them (and yes, I absolutely cannot wait to attend/speak at one of her leadership conferences). I think the lesson you all are demonstrating here is, social media affords a remarkable opportunity to BE a contributing member of a worthwhile community like the world has not yet seen before. Thank you for jumping on that opportunity and enriching my life.
Eh…he's ALRIGHT…
Al i think he's positively touched us all in ExeterWhat is it specifically for you that he has done?
Trey!Again you show you King-making nature by building others up.First of all, thank you for your kind words. I love learning from each other.Secondly, I think many people are growing wearing in paying it forward – if you know what I mean. Recently, a whole bunch of work opened up for you after a bit of a drought – can you encourage the people here with something to keep them going?BestScott
Yeah, sorta
I think a lot of the “weary in paying it forward” goes back to motivation. It is easy to get weary sometimes, but I try to remember why I'm doing what I do. It's funny, because my dh said he can't believe how I can make other people connect to their mutual benefit and it doesn't “seem” to benefit us. A friend said “we are not given our gifts to bless ourselves, but to bless others. We need to allow others to bless us at times, too”. That was what I needed to hear. Plus…it's how you finish that really counts, regardless of how weary you might be now. DON'T QUIT!! Sorry, I know this was primarily directed to Trey (hope you don't mind me butting in, Trey), but I've been thinking about this a lot lately.
Hey CindyThanks for jumping in! This is the way it's meant to be – cross conversation.I hear what you're saying – it's those key encouragements at key times that motivate people to keep going. Thanks for sharing this – as it's good to know that there's other who feel the same way at times!Best,Scott
Trey has taught me two key things – smiling makes others feel good – when have you seen Trey without a smile on his face? I feel uplifted everytime I see him – I'm sure this works for others. We all have our challenges and I'm certain Trey is no different. This doesn't get in the way of how he portrays himself. He rarely speaks about himself – The whole point of this post really. I now start to get angry when I can hear myself talking about what we/I do – I'm starting to get far more focused on helping others which I know, in turn will end up coming back round.
Thank you Alastair. Very kind of you to say so.
Awh, man. Thanks.
Oh my. There's an old Southern spiritual, Nobody knows de trouble I seen. What's so moving about the song is, it's universal. The tune comes to mind often when I'm about to be frustrated with someone, and I hear the words, “Nobody knows the trouble I've seen; no one knows my sorrow….” Put things in perspective. We have no idea what difficulties that irritating person in line ahead of us is going through right now.When I was having a particularly hard (for me) time, I wrote this blog post: http://findyournerve.com/archive/83 I expected that post to be a marker in time, a point of reference for a singular event, an event that was PAST. For whatever reason, the condition stayed about the same until April of this year (yep, two months ago). That's when everything fell into place and unbelievable blessings flooded my way. Even during the extended time of financial turmoil, I took great comfort in the wealth given to me in the form of good friends and faithful encouragers. If I had to pick between the two—wealth or good friends—I'd pick good friends. Monetary wealth is fleeting.
Thank you Kathy. I am SO looking forward to a Spitball party in PA!
Interesting. Here's a verse, Proverbs 11:24, that rings in my ears often:One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.I don't think that verse suggests that one can formulate a strategy to become wealthy and then employ the Proverbs 11:24 principle to obtain it. I'm not quite up on my Hebrew or Jewish poetry, but my hunch is, the giving is an active verb and the growing richer is passive. The drought has actually been over three years long. 2009 marked the worst of it. 2010 started out looking like a repeat. What has amazed me this year, and I still have difficulty comprehending this and coming to grips with it, is the number of people who are taking delight and count it joy to help me. I think that because I put SO much online, people who really care about me read it, anticipate where I'm going, inventory their own assets, and proactive offer to help me according to their area of giftedness. It is simply remarkable. Those who denigrate social media as inefficient technology miss the whole point. This social media stuff has absolutely nothing in the world to do with technology. The technology is not the opportunity, though it certainly enables the opportunity. The opportunity is finding great people all over the world who WANT to be a part of helping others. That's remarkable. I hope that as a society, we don't blow this opportunity to connect with caring people to create caring communities who are well-connected and coordinated to change the world. One such community is the one birthed through LikeMinds. Look at what the LikeMinds community is doing together. Someday someone will write a whole book just about the impact of LikeMinds. There's probably already enough data to write that book now. ; )
I always like it when you butt in with whatever you've been pondering. You should definitely continue sharing the ponderable.
Hey Trey, Im so glad great things have come your way now – are you allowed to talk openly about them?
Trey thank you *so* much for sharing your experience.This encourages me, because I know that most people see your recent success and are oblivious to your struggles over the recent years.Honoured to be your friend, and part of your future,Scott
Your post has a new meaning today, thank you for writing it. Trey helped make many kings and his legacy will be long lasting. Very sad that his struggles were so deep, I am praying for his family.