Twitter User of The Week

Last Week’s Twitter User of the Week was @GiniDietrich.  One of my questions to her was, “Who should I write about next week, and why?”. Her answer was quite compelling:

Nancy Lyons (@Nylons). Nancy is the CEO of Clockwork Active Media Systems, a Web design and iPhone apps agency. She is the smartest woman business owner I know. She hires really smart people and trusts them to do their jobs. She once told me the job of the CEO is to hire smarter people than themselves and let them do what they do. She lives by this philosophy and has created a company that is one of the best places to work in Minneapolis (year over year) and is very family/work balance oriented. Plus, not only is she smart, she is (by far) the most funny person I know. If you feature her, you have to ask about her business partners working for Prince (or…the artist formerly known as).

I looked at Nancy’s Bio on both the Geek Girls Guide and the Clockwork websites.  From this, I found that Nancy is a “passionate technology evangelist”, CEO, named as A Woman to Watch by the Business Journal. I looked for a link to this article, but as far as I can tell they have taken it down or hidden it.  This information was a great start, but my goal with this blog is to find out about the real person from them and from their friends, co-workers, and twitter following.

The Twitter community had a few kind words to share about Nancy:

Meghan Wilker (@irishgirl) was the first to respond to my questions about Nancy. As it turns out, Meghan is the Managing Director at Clockwork and is Nancy’s partner-in-crime with Geek Girls.  Meghan had great things to tell me about Nancy, one of them is how they started working together:

… the whole reason I even know her is because, ten years ago, I was so inspired by her as business person that I essentially stalked her until she gave me a job. What I found so inspiring was her honesty; she was talking about being honest and transparent with clients and employees in a way that — as a person working at a big marketing agency — was totally foreign. She was living the social media mantra long before it was cool.

Nancy takes the opportunity to be a teacher and a mentor to those around her, she lives the mantra that “to lead is to serve”. Meghan pointed out one more trait about Nancy that needs to be shared because it truly lets you see her character:

There are many managers who are all too happy to take credit for the work of others; Nancy gives credit to everyone else in the organization first — sometimes she gives others so much credit that it’s easy to overlook or forget how much she contributes.

The more I talked to people, the more I realized how much Nancy’s being a mentor has changed and guided people through their lives and business ventures.

Jennifer Kane (@JenKaneCo), of Kane Consulting, wrote to me about Nancy to tell me what it is that she has learned so far from her “non-mentor mentor-y person”. I read the following from Jennifer and realized I had to just paste it in, no editing, because I believe that once you read it, you will understand who Nancy is and what she is about.

I’ve learned a lot from her:

1) How to treat people
Nancy is pretty chill, but people shouldn’t let that fool them. She is powerful, influential and wicked, wicked smart. She is the type of person who remembers the favors extended to her and repays them, even if it’s years down the road. Her employees seem to adore her and her competition respects her. (Look at me…she’s not my client — or even my mentor, if you want to get technical about it — but I’m setting aside some billable time to send you my thoughts, since…well…she deserves it and she’d probably do the same for me).

2) Being a chick is no big deal
Nancy is one of the few woman in a leadership role at an agency in the Twin Cities. And she is a fierce advocate for everyone getting equal treatment at work and at home — regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. But she’s not standing on a soap-box making these directives. She just realizes that there is, in fact, an “old boys club” that still exists in business today. Rather than griping about it, she’s just started a “new ladies on the block club” to help the rest of us get our chance to play.

3) It’s not all about you.
Nancy keeps the big picture in mind. She doesn’t sell out for the big project. She doesn’t forget her friends in order to crawl up the next rung of the corporate ladder. She doesn’t hide the fact that her family brings her joy. She gives back to the community. She throws awesome company parties…just ’cause. She listens to stories that probably bore her to tears, simply cause that’s the right thing to do. If anything, her lack of self-promotional skills means that she doesn’t often get the buzz that she deserves. I suspect though, that the big buzz isn’t really the grand prize for her anyway. I’m pretty sure the grand prize is something she already won years ago…it’s just taking the rest of us awhile to wise up the fact.

After learning about Nancy through articles online, emails, and the people I talked to, I have added her to my personal list of people to watch closely. I like to “Do what successful people do” in the hopes that learning from them will also lead me to success.  Nancy has reached the place where people look up to her and learn from her, to me that means she is successful. So I will continue to pay attention and see if I can learn a few things from her about what it means to be successful.

Twitter User of The Week Q & A

@ginidietrich nominated you for Twitter User of the Week. What do you think of her?

I think it’s safe to say that I love Gini.  We met while working together on a client assignment and at first I thought we’d be like oil and water.  Turns out the opposite was true.  She’s got great energy.  She’s wildly intelligent.  She’s about as friendly as they come.  She’s inspiring — talking to Gini is like opening a font of ideas and encouragement and I always feel energized and excited by possibility when we’re done.  She’s ethical and loyal and entirely genuine and hardworking and supportive.  She is driven.  But she’s not just out for her own personal gain – she wants to take you with her.  She sees the potential in everyone, in every connection, in every good idea.  She is an optimist.  She is a bright light.  She is my friend.  And I hope that I am fortunate enough to continue to collaborate and work with her for. . .ever.  (that should scare her good.)

What is your favorite Laffy Taffy Joke (One-liner joke)?

A man walked into a bar.  Ouch.

What is a question to which you would answer: “D. All of the above”? And, what are A, B, & C?

Which of these jobs might show up on Nancy Lyons’ resume?

A. murder mystery dinner theatre actor
B. stand-up comic
C. minister
D. all of the above

What is the first thing you do in the morning?

Cuddle with my son.

What would you do if you had a time machine?

I would go back and spend more time with my grandmother in the year before she died.  I was too immature and too dumb to realize what was happening and what I was about to lose.

What is something that not a lot of people know about you but you WISH more people COULD know?

That Twitter helps me be more social, while also allowing me to nurture the more introverted side of myself.  I have extroverted tendencies.  But I recharge my battery by being alone.  My work requires a lot of social energy, so I am not always very exciting after hours and people seem surprised by that.  I love what I do and my passion for it is obvious so most people assume I am always ‘on’.

Also — I am a singer.

What question would you add to this list?

What song lyric sums up your life thus far?

What is the one thing that gets you out of bed every morning?

My toddler’s foot in my kidney.

Who should I write about next week, and why?

@wd45 because he’s quirky and interesting and friendly and cool. He works for PRI (which is it’s own brand of cool). And I don’t know much about him other than what I gather from his tweets.  But I want to — hence this recommendation.

For more information about Nancy (@Nylons) please visit her site ClockWork or Geek Girls Guide.

Thank you to @ginidietrich, @irishgirl and @JenKaneCo for providing me with great information and insight into who Nancy Lyons really is.

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