Are you sitting down? I have something very important I need you to know.

Ready?

You matter.

There are people out there, many of whom you’ve never met and may never meet, who would not be where they are it wasn’t for you.  Do you get that? Does that sink in?

Who you are and what you do affects people. You have a place in the world that is uniquely your own, a perfect you-shaped hole that only you can fill.

You are curious and interested. You inspire these things in others.  You have passion to share, even if you have no freakin clue what it is yet.  It’s there, waiting to explode out into the world. By virtue of you reading this post, I know this much about you.

You have every right to be proud of yourself. You have every right to love who you are. I’m giving you permission.  In fact, you have an absolute responsibility to do both of these things.

You know that inner voice? That voice with its arms folded right now, shrugging and saying “Yeah, but so what?” or “This guy doesn’t even know me” or “What is this nutjob on about!” ?

That voice hates you. That voice desperately needs you to think that you don’t matter, that you’re not good enough, that you’re not really a part of the world, that when people say something nice about you they dont really mean it, or they don’t really know the real you, or whatever.  That way, that voice wins, and gets to be smug, and be right, and have control.

Here’s the secret.  I have a feeling you already know this.  That voice is a liar. All that stuff is 100% fiction.  Because you matter.  You have a place in the world that is uniquely yours.  Whether you’re out feeding the homeless or home on the couch watching TV, that you-shaped hole can only be filled by you. And look at you, you’re already doing it!

That very same voice inside my head has controlled me for a long time.  I’ve bought into it. I thought “Yeah, I’m smart, so what? I didn’t have anything to do with me being smart, it’s just how I am.”  That voice got to win. I don’t blame myself, nor do I think I’m a victim of it, it is simply a statement of fact. But now I’m writing this to you, because I’m geting the sneaking suspicion that what I’m saying in this letter is true. And that I need to tell that voice “Thanks for your input, but you’re wrong, and I don’t have to listen to you anymore.”  And that you do, too.

I know it’s easy to discard this letter as saccharine nonsense or empty words. People don’t tell each other that they matter very often.  Sure, it’s implied by a smile or a hug or a tweet or an IM or all that stuff that’s easy to file in a place where it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme.  I think this needs to change.

Here’s what I want you to do.  This is absolutely essential. Chances are, if I’ve communicated what I want to say effectively, there’s someone in your mind right now who you know that matters to you, and needs to read this.  I want you to pick up the phone, write them an email, meet them for dinner, mail them a letter or even send them a tweet and tell them strongly and directly “Hey, I wanted you to know that you matter to me.”  Don’t qualify it with a particular reason or accomplishment or what they’ve done for you. Just leave it at that, and mean it. If you’re on Twitter and feel comfortable doing so, consider using hashtag #youmatter.

Okay, so that’s what I wanted to make sure you knew.  Letter over.

With all possible love and admiration,

Jeremy Meyers

P.S. This letter is also available on youmatterletter.com

[this letter was inspired by several conversations had at and around Podcamp Boston, and by a few people who matter to me very much.]

So, here’s some news

As of this week, I’ve left my position as Digital Content and Editorial person at Sony Music and joined the Studio D team at PR firm Waggener Edstrom.

This decision caps off a decade-long career in the music industry that saw the rise of Napster, the industries curious response, and the resulting transformational steps. I don’t want to editorialize too much about the state of the business (meet me for drinks for that) except to say that there are a lot of very smart people who are very passionate about music that remain at companies that are slow to transition to the new realities of their marketplace.

In any case, this post is not about that. It’s about my process and discovery and how using online tools helped connect me with what has ultimately become my new gig.

When I came across the job posting (on Craigslist, of all places), it seemed like it’d be a very good match. The job entails creating content, project managing websites and advising on new technologies and integrating new communications platforms into existing strategies. My level of interest and excitement grew when I began to research Waggener Edstrom, who admittedly I’d never heard of before (the music industry tends to be very insular in the list of companies hired to do PR, and honestly does not tend to work at a scale where a WaggEd would make sense).

This is a company that truly believes in the power of storytelling, authenticity, and unlike many PR firms, they are expanding their interest, dedication to and staffing of the digital world. They are mainly known in the PR world for being the agency of record for Microsoft, although they work on many interesting accounts, including many in the commercial products sector. They are constantly winning awards both for their work (recently awarded NW PR agency of the year , and Entrepreneur of the Year for Melissa Waggener) and for employment (PR week named them the bronze medalist in their “best place to work” awards) I very shortly found myself becoming a big fan of WaggEd.

Because this would be a major shift in the trajectory of my career, and because I spend way too much time on social networks, my next step was to research all I could about the company, and more importantly the people, minds and voices with whom I would be interacting. It’s very important to me to be surrounded by people who share my vision for the power of communication, storytelling and authenticity.

Waggener has several blogs, one of the most popular being Thinkers And Doers, a home for insight from the Studio D team. Their posts reflected a curiosity and viewpoint that I could easily align myself with, so I began commenting, when I had something to say about the topic.

At the same time, I searched for and followed as many Waggener people as I could on Twitter, using the bios page on waggeneredstrom.com as a starting point, and expanding the list using @dacort’s tweepsearch.com. I set up a separate TweetDeck group specifically for all the WaggEd folk, and started listening to what they were saying, selectively responding, and getting to know some of the people inside the company and what they’re all about.

Throughout this process, I’m happy to have been able to chat with a bunch of people and really start to get to know them. Now that I have the job, I also have friends inside the company, so I wont be starting from scratch, which is always a bonus when beginning at a new job.

You’ll notice that throughout the course of this post, I have not mentioned any of the typical steps one takes in order to get a new job (e.g. the interview process, references, linkedin profiles, etc). While these obviously took place (Waggener was very rigorous in their interview process), that process has been covered to death elsewhere, and was less notable than what happened outside the “what strengths do you think you can bring to the company” type interviews.

Anyway, they made the decision to bring me on board,  I start August 3rd, and I look forward to the new challenges and opportunities this position will bring.

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Jamie.

My friend Jamie Dordek died yesterday.  Normally I wouldn’t share such news on my blog, but it so happens that I’d only met her once.  She was someone that I’d gotten to know mostly through Twitter and IM.  Her passion for life and all that it had to offer was truly an inspiration.  We would sit and talk for hours on IM and the phone about music and life and cooking and anything else that happened to make its way into our conversation. I’m so saddened that I will never get to make her the mix CD I promised.

Many have said it before, much more eloquently than I could ever could, so I will just say this:  Social Networking sites connect us to people.  There are so many relationships that I know I value that have started on silly websites like Facebook and Twitter and Myspace and OKcupid and Match.  They are real, whether you’ve spent time with the person in “real life,” just talked to them over the phone, or just online.  All these relationships mean something.  That fact is never more pronounced than when someone is suddenly gone.

There arent ever the right words to say when something like this happens.  The standard response is “I’m sorry,” but that doesn’t really convey what really happens when a hole is made in your life.

So, it was a pleasure to have had Jamie in my life, we were all richer for her existance, and the world lost a killer smile this week.

So long, kid.

Safe travels.

I have about six different blog posts half-written on all different subjects (including the failure of classical music to catch on with many of today’s music fan, something about the economy, and other goodness) but partially inspired by Chris Brogan’s “Things not to do in 2009″ and partially due to the typical end-of-year reflection and thinking about the future, I wrote some resolutions for myself in my personal journal.

Upon thinking about it and discussing with a few folks, I present them here, unabridged, with the thought that some of you may find a few of them useful to yourselves.

Jeremy’s Resolutions for 2009

• Collaborate more, professionally and personally. Engage others and allow myself to be engaged with.
• Trust, share and value my emotions during the course of every day.
• Spend more time with friends in person (especially if travel is necessary), reconnect with peripheral people.
• Treat myself and the world around me with more love and respect.
• Go after what I want without letting fear stop me. Say yes more than I say no.
• More precisely define my passions, figure out how to make them more core to my day-to-day existence.

Your feedback, additions, thoughts are very welcome.

[Thanks, MuppetCentral!]