63 Magazine - Issue 1

people online nowadays, so you need to
consider how you use that to organize and
how you use social media to meet people
where they are, whether it be Twitter, or
Facebook, or any of these new apps coming
out.
But, the technology is just a tactic or
channel to help you execute your overall
strategy to hit your goals.
I don’t think there will ever be a day where
you just purely organize online, but it
should definitely be a part of what you’re
doing. Always thinking through new ways
to reach people where they are is the new
focus of organizing. There are all these
tools out there now, and bringing them
into your overall strategy is important.
AM: What personal habit contributes
to your success as an organizer?
MM: Before I started organizing, I was an
unorganized person; organizing actually
made me more organized with my day. I’m
very much a systems person. With my team
I do one-on-one meetings so that we can
drill in on what they are doing and how I
can be supportive to their everyday work.
And then we have a big meeting once per
week, where we can step back and look at
where we are, how we got there, and reassess
what we’re doing.
AM: Do you have a daily or weekly
routine that helps you
improve your health, your
finances, or just to relax?
MM: I should say that my routine is always
going to the gym and eating healthy, which
I try to do, but it fluctuates a lot. It’s really
hard. The biggest thing that keeps me doing
this now is I have a wife who lets me know
when I need to get my butt in the gym. I try
to be realistic about it, but it’s real hard.
I always go back to the fact that you should
be able to fit it into your day, whether it be
early in the morning or late at night, if you
manage your time wisely. But it’s not easy.
It’s about prioritizing and making sure
that you have healthy priorities in place.
AM: Do you do anything right before
you go out to speak at an
event to get pumped up?
MM: Nah, I’m kind of naturally pumped
up. Right before an event I’ll write down
on a little piece of paper some bullet points,
because it helps me think about how I
want to frame what I say, and this helps me
get excited. But I don’t do jumping jacks
or anything; I’m just naturally hyped.
So, I guess my personal habit is creating
systems. These systems help me support
my team by allowing us to dig in when
we need to get the job done, but also
contribute to creating the team culture
that is needed to move forward with a
clear vision of where we need to go.