Sunday Kass and I signed a deal to sell Buddy Media to salesforce.com.
After we signed, I sat down and recorded a personal video. It's raw and emotional and captured the feelings I had after signing. I thought about not sharing it as it is so personal. But that wouldn't be very social-media like of me. I figure I've been sharing what I've been eating, doing, seeing and more for hte better part of 5 years. So why stop now?
UPDATE: This video has caught on beyond my wildest expectations. I posted it to Facebook. I didn't tweet it as I didn't really want to share it widely. What I thought would be a nice way to share with friends and family the news turned into a wildfire.
As of this morning (Tues, 9 AM ET), the video has more than 35,000 views on Youtube and even more on Facebook, where it has 400 Likes, 300 shares, 100 comments and still traveling.
The most rewarding part of the video has been the reaction. I've received a ton of great comments, from friends and strangers. (98% positive on Youtube, which never happens as the comments are trolling spam crackheads, like you, probably)
My favorites are from survivors with their own stories. People driven by fear and paralyzed by fear that now see hope.
Like Michael Shaffer, who wrote on Facebook, "Thanks! My son was diagnosed with pulmonary atresia and at the age of two has gone through 2 of what should be 3 open heart surgeries. I hope that my wife and I instill in him a passion to live life to the fullest and that he follows his heart as you have done."
I received a very kind note from John Greene. He wrote (and I hope he's OK with me sharing), "Mike, you don't know me (yet) but we share a common bond. We both got a second chance at life our lives were both profoundly changed by Marc Benioff ... Welcome to the team and look forward to meeting at SFDC HQ!"
John, an engineer for Salesforce, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Marc Benioff learned of his story and tweeted out one night, "Salesforce employee John Greene has AM L and needs a bone marrow transplant to survive. Are you a match?" By morning, 350 employees had signed up w/ the registry and the company covered insurance costs.
I encourage you to read more about the story here.
And the craziest part of the story to me? John is a huge Phish fan and also has pictures of his kids watching Phish on his Facebook Page! So when John reached out to me yesterday, I immediately felt connected to not only John, but the entire company that supported John, Salesforce.
Many of my closest friends at Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Google reached out. Facebook chief ad exec Carolyn Everson's comment was extra special as she knew Jen Linn well and is part of the community working to fund cancer research.
"Thank you for sharing and I do believe [Jen and Ben] see you in this amazing moment in time."
One commenter on Youtube replied, "Thank you soo much for making this life changing video,fear holds me back every day.it has stop me from having relationships,it has even stoped me from eating and even to go outside.so from watching this video i will not let it hold me back again.and i will become the director i want to be!!:)"
Here is a video response that blew Kass and me away late last night as we sat in bed talking about the day and looking through comments.