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H2B2 State of the year 2024

Hey everyone, it’s Nathan. (I know you all know who I am, lol)

I felt a strong desire to talk about where we are as a community and organization, and my plans for 2024.

Some of that comes from wanting to work on some of my natural weaknesses as a 2iC, like actually pro-actively communicating what I’m doing, instead of just having a bunch of plans in secret.

So I’m going to:

  • Take a quick look back
  • Talk about the state of the Vision and Mission
  • Look at the H2B2 2024 Roadmap
  • Explain how to be involved

A Quick Look back

It’s honestly hard to believe that David and I published How to be Second like 6 months ago. 

In that time, it seems like it’s touched some lives, which is honestly amazing. 

Like, listen to a few of these notes we’ve gotten:

  • “It’s like I found my spirit guide”
  • “My best friend sent me a link to your book on Spotify twice over the course of a few weeks saying, “this is you.” I spent a decade or two on self-help/improvement, and MBTI & Enneagram so spending more money was not tops on my list, but I got the audiobook and it’s ridiculously good and my boss is super interested and now I’m thinking we need copies for the office.”
  • “I read your book recently and have already recommended it to others. It was incredible and not like anything I had ever read before. I resonated with so much of your research and am grateful for it.”
  • “Loved it! I’m definitely a 2iC, which I struggled with at first, but it was crystal clear as I got through the book. I felt validated in so many ways as it mentioned and solved many of my struggles as an Integrator.”
  • “Read this book so you can stop apologizing for being weirdly you. I read the entire thing in one day. Yes, it’s that good.”
  • “Thank you and David for this book. It really helped me with shared vocabulary around something I ”knew” about myself, but really couldn’t articulate. And that “oh, I guess this is a thing?” realization felt like looking in a mirror at times.”
  • “Every time I go through a page I internally scream “THAT IS ME!” I feel heard, I feel seen… somebody understands.”

Things like that sustain me and the energy for investing into this community. I’m so thankful for the support we’ve received, and I find so much purpose in having chosen this community to serve.

Some other fun stats, or at least fun to me!

1 book published.

400 Books sold across 6 Countries (100 from our website!)

200 People on the H2B2 email list, 92 of which are self-declared Seconds

80 Custom “welcome” videos sent

3 H2B2 Meetups

48 thousand LNKD post views since I started posting daily about Seconds

In a world of millions of views and hundreds of thousands of subscribers seeming normal, these numbers can feel tiny… but the idea of having 100 people in a room who have said “Fuck yes, I am this thing, thank you for this” is pretty incredible to me.

So thank you for where we’ve been together already. You are awesome.

State of Vision and Mission

Fascinating, Worthwhile, and Meaningful, AKA: My struggle with Vision and Purpose

I recognize that my writing style is to bury the lead somewhat, so I hope you can stick with me.

I’ve talked a lot about struggling with finding “my purpose”, specifically in this more Westernized sense where it’s like my purpose already exists on its own and I have to go find it. Growing up in an evangelical Christian home, I heard this same idea repeated all the time in phrases like “finding God’s will for your life.”

I kinda call bullshit on that idea – 

I still believe we were made by God, AND that He wants us to do certain things like love and care for each other and our communities…

but there’s nothing to convince me that we were made for a singular as-yet-undiscovered-purpose. 

Rather we were built to be able to find meaning in many things – a SENSE of purpose, a sense of wonder and fascination and worth.

Listening to an interview by Jeff Bezos recently, he said of his work at Blue Origin that to him it’s fascinating, worthwhile, and meaningful, so he’s excited to do it every day.

I feel the same about How to be Second – I was lying awake at 5am this morning, thinking about saying these things. Thinking about the goals for this year and the people we’ve already helped.

And over the last few weeks of downtime and thinking about this non-stop because I cannot shut it off in my head, I’ve added and adjusted the Vision and Mission for H2B2 somewhat. Here it is:

The Overall Vision is to be an organization that Champions and Supports Seconds.

Some things I’d love to be true by 2027 are:

H2B2 is the place Seconds can reliably find community BEYOND the confines of a particular role – it is not exclusively for those who are currently in the Integrator or COO seats; you could be in the CEO seat, or NO seat. It is not for business, it’s for people, specifically for those who identify as “Seconds”, the person.

H2B2 is the FIRST place people think to point Seconds, and the first place a Second SHOULD go, when considering how to find their next job.

H2B2 consistently gets the feedback that it helped a Second to own their value and clearly explain it to others, professionally and personally.

The Mission is the same:

  1. Help Seconds understand who they are, how that’s valuable, and how it’s THEIR responsibility to own that.
  2. Point Seconds in the direction of resources and tools so they can take the next step.

Something that’s very important to me is that lacking funding is not what cuts a Second off from the ability to get access to support, as a lot of Seconds find themselves through self-discovery work during a job transition… and at the same time, this is not and cannot be a charity? … dunno how everyone feels about that, but it’s in my head.

H2B2 2024 Roadmap

In order to move towards the vision, I feel like these are the things to work on this year:

  • Establish the H2B2 Board of Advisors
  • Launch “Am I a Second? Which one?” Assessment
  • Launch BROAD Workshops for Seconds 
  • Launch Matchmaking Events for Seconds and First in Commands
  • Captain the Harbinger Executive Alliance “COO in Transition” group
  • Pursue Organizational Training Opportunities to teach more Orgs about the value of Seconds throughout the company ranks, how to spot Seconds in their orgs, and how to Hire Seconds (creating more specific opportunities for Seconds in the process)
  • Pursue partnership conversations with 12 companies
  • 4 Public speaking appearances to Champion Seconds
  • 12 Monthly Meetups Hosted
  • 50 Weekly Emails (Today is #1)
  • 360 Daily LinkedIn posts (Today was #2!)

“Holy shit dude that’s a lot!” – Yes, I know. I’m hoping that over the course of the year, some helpful souls who would like to see these things accomplished for the good of the Second community will jump in to support, or the Second community will find a few of these products valuable enough that we’ll have enough revenue to hire some Seconds ourselves!

Here’s a few simple ways you could help, if you’re interested:

– Be part of the community! Never feel bad for just being around and taking comfort in H2B2 existing for you. Be on the email list, like a linkedin post sometimes, come to meetups, whatever.

– Share our content or book with someone you know

– Intro David or I to your leadership team to talk about Seconds

– Make a connection for David or I to any of the stuff mentioned above

– Ask about being on the Board (We do have specific requirements around this one)

Thank you again

Without you, there is literally no reason to do any of this. 

So, thank you for being on the list and opening the email, for making it this far, for being who you are at all.

And thank you for being or supporting those of us who prefer to serve from just left of the limelight.

Finding a Job as a Second

At any point, you may find yourself in need of new work. If you do, here are some tactical resources to get you accelerated in doing that.