This was my kickoff presentation at REBarcamp Denver.
AI Summary of “Cutting Your Own Grass” (Added 8 January 2026)
The talk uses cutting your own grass as a metaphor for social media and networking. The core idea is that social media is not about following someone else’s rules or copying their tools. It is about understanding your own goals, people, and situation. Your grass is different from everyone else’s grass, so your approach should be different too.
You are responsible for deciding what tools make sense for you. Other speakers can share what works for them, but their strategies are shaped by their own needs. Your job is to listen with intent and constantly ask whether a given tool or tactic actually fits your market, your clients, and the size of your “yard.”
Participation is essential. BarCamp only works if attendees ask questions, challenge ideas that don’t fit, and speak up when something is confusing. If you sit quietly and consume without engaging, you will miss the value and walk away frustrated.
There is no single right strategy. Different people succeed with different approaches, even when using the same platforms. One person’s success does not make another person’s method wrong. What matters is that the strategy aligns with your personality, your goals, and your comfort level.
Fear and confusion are normal starting points. Everyone begins somewhere, and it is okay to admit you don’t understand the tools or how to use them. Honest questions and clear explanations of what you have tried help others actually help you.
Learning does not only happen in formal sessions. Some of the most valuable conversations happen in hallways, side discussions, or impromptu gatherings. Attendees should feel empowered to create their own learning experiences if the scheduled ones are not meeting their needs.
Ultimately, the conference is about giving people new ways to connect, build relationships, and do business. Whether you do it yourself, use automation, or delegate parts of the work, the choice is yours. You are in control, and the goal is to leave with a clearer sense of how to take care of your own grass.
Full “Cutting Your Own Grass” Transcript
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Okay, my job here today is to get you mentally prepared for the day and to put you in the right headspace to get the most out of this RE BarCamp experience. So what I thought I’d do is make a bit of a confession. I cut my own grass.
Now, here in Denver, that may not be a big deal. Lots of people probably cut their own grass. Back in West Virginia, where I’m from, it’s odd if you don’t cut your own grass. But where I come from, in Los Angeles, when you cut your own grass, you’re an anomaly. I’m not just the only guy who cuts his own grass in my neighborhood, I’m the only guy I know in Southern California that cuts his own grass.
So how did I come to the decision to cut my own grass? Two years ago, on a family trip back to our farm in West Virginia. Again, West Virginia, people cut their own grass. So when I’m in West Virginia, I cut the grass at my house in West Virginia. And I discovered something. I kind of dig cutting my own grass. Kind of nice.
So when I got back home, I bought a lawnmower. This actually is my, well actually it’s a marketing representation of my lawnmower. My lawnmower is dirtier, has grass all over it, but that is my actual lawnmower. I push it by hand. I cut my grass with that lawnmower. Why? Because this is my lawn. This is not my lawn. Therefore, this is not my lawnmower.
So mowing my lawn isn’t just about cutting the grass. Now hopefully you guys are catching on here. I’m not actually talking to you about cutting grass. I’m talking to you about social media. I’m talking to you about networking in general. And I’m making an analogy. I just want to make sure everybody is on the same page. I did not actually come here to talk about cutting grass.
It’s about your grass. Social networking is about your grass. Your people. Who you want to reach. It’s not about what everyone else says it should be about. You get to make the decision. You get to decide for yourself what social media is for you. It’s about your grass, not my grass.
There are going to be a lot of really bright people standing up in front of you today talking about their grass. How they cut their grass. The tools they use to cut their grass. But it’s their grass. Make today about your grass. That’s your responsibility here today.
You need to listen with intent. And your intent is, will that lawnmower be good to cut my grass. Does that make sense?
So when I was making the decision about what lawnmower I wanted to use to cut my grass, it was more than just cutting grass. I wanted to do it all by myself. I got a very, very small yard. I don’t have a big yard. It’s California. And it’s getting even smaller because we just ripped all the grass out of our front yard. And I wanted to be as green as possible.
Now there’s lots of options if I want to be green. I could have got an electric lawnmower. Could have got one that plugs in, a little battery. But to reach the ultimate for me, I got to get a push lawnmower. Now I bought a Brill. Runs really smoothly. Really nice. Trust me. It’s not that hard to cut my grass. But my decision on my lawnmower was mine.
I don’t care if my neighbors laugh at me when they see me pushing my little lawnmower. It does exactly what I wanted it to do. For me. For my grass.
Your social media strategy, how you conduct yourself online, what you choose to do, needs to fit you personally. And you shouldn’t care if a Guy Kawasaki or a Jeff Turner says you should be using a different tool. Because you know what? I don’t know what size your lawn is. And I don’t know what other things you have in your head about how you’d like to cut your grass. Now I might be able to help you if you tell me. But don’t take it at face value. Make sense?
So if this is your grass, those might work for you. Who am I to tell you you shouldn’t use a kid’s scissors to cut your grass? If that’s your grass, remember, if that’s your grass, these might work. And yes, people might look at you funny. But it might work for you. You get to make that decision.
These might work better. They’re sharper. They’re newer. Probably fit your hand better. And this is going to be overkill. It might be fun.
RE BarCamp Denver. New ways to cut your grass.
Listen. This is going to be a success or failure based on your participation. Because this is an unconference. Other than these main sessions, which might be a little harder for you to do, when you’re in these smaller sessions you better be raising your hand. You better be questioning that speaker. If they’re saying something that doesn’t seem to fit based upon your understanding of your market, your clients, what your needs are, raise your hand. Question them.
This is your conference. It’s not our conference. We come here from all over the place to do one thing and one thing only. To try and help spread the word. To try and help you determine for yourself what’s going to be best for you. Not to try and convince you that my way is better.
Joel McDonald uses a completely different strategy for how he follows people on Twitter than I do. Brad Hanks, who’s running a LinkedIn session later, our LinkedIn strategies are completely different. It doesn’t make his wrong and mine right. It’s the one I’ve chosen for myself.
You have to participate. If you don’t, you may walk away from this and say, “I don’t get BarCamp. I just don’t get it.”
Here’s what I don’t want you to do today. If you’re here thinking you don’t need to cut your grass, you’re probably in the wrong place. Because you’ve been cutting your grass your entire life. You just haven’t been using these tools.
And I know in your heart of hearts you want to network. You want to meet new people. You want to expand your sphere of influence. I know you want to do that. You may not know that you want to do that online. And quite frankly, some of the online strategies may not be right for you, depending on the size of your yard and what you’re trying to accomplish. But don’t be afraid.
Here’s the beauty of this conference. It’s taking place everywhere. It’s taking place in the hallways. If you don’t think you should be cutting your grass using these online tools, hunt down one of us and pull us aside in the hallway and say, “I’m sorry. I don’t get this. I’m afraid of this. I don’t know how to get started. What can I do?” You don’t have to wait for a session to do that.
In fact, your needs might be better addressed in the hallway than in a session where you won’t distract from people who are trying to learn something better. So pick your moment, but don’t be afraid to step up and say, “I just don’t get it.”
Now, we may laugh at you at first, just like I laugh at my neighbors in West Virginia, whose houses look like this, because some of them do. Trust me. But eventually, we’ll help you through it because everybody starts at the beginning. Everybody. We all start at the beginning.
So help us help you. If you said, “I tried and it didn’t work,” please tell us what you really did. If you were trying to use a butter knife to cut your grass, we need to know that. Don’t just walk up and say, “I tried that. It didn’t work for me.” Tell us exactly what you did and be honest about it. It’s okay. We won’t chastise you. I promise.
Don’t know the size of your yard? We might be able to help you with that. Every person in every session might be able to help you determine what is the size of your yard. What does your yard look like? Want a bigger yard? Want to know how to get a bigger yard? We can help you with that, too. But you have to let us know.
You have to participate. You have to raise your hand. Don’t understand your lawnmower? I don’t get Twitter. Tell us, “I don’t understand that lawnmower. I don’t know how it works. I need a better user manual. The one that I got is too complicated. Help me, help me, help me.” Raise your hand.
Need a new lawnmower? That’s what we’re selling here today. New lawnmowers. That’s what this is all about. New ways to cut your grass. New ways to reach your network. New ways to find more people that you can talk to in your local area, that you can actually get face-to-face with and do business with. That’s why we’re here.
You want someone else to cut your yard? There are strategies to do that, too. And even though I’m the biggest proponent of YEO, you engaging others, you getting personal, you doing it yourself, I know for a fact that there are some damn good strategies that involve automation, that involve other people doing some of this work for you. And you shouldn’t be afraid to explore those either.
So today, you are actually in control. You’re going to tell us what your needs are. You’re going to tell us what size yard you have. You’re going to tell us what you do and don’t like about your current lawnmower. And we’re going to help you have a prettier yard. That’s our goal. That should be your goal.
So here’s how it works. That board outside, all of these different sessions, you get to choose. They’re 50 minutes each, 10 minutes in between. Lunch is at 11:30, but this conference takes place the entire time. Whether you’re in the hallway, or whether you’re in this main session, or whether you’re out on the patio in an impromptu session that you create on your own, because you’re not getting anything that’s being said in any of these rooms.
Create your own conference if this one isn’t working for you. That’s what BarCamp’s about. You get to make it. So do that.
[applause]
If you want, next step could be tightening this for a written essay while keeping the metaphor intact, or tagging the strongest Humaneering-through-lines without rewriting anything yet.
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