I love to dance. But I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a dancer.

(I always figured you needed training, recitals and a monogrammed bag with ballet slipper patches on it to officially be called a “dancer.”)

But, I can dance. And, I can make up moves and build whole dance routines in my head. So, earlier in my life, I often found myself in the role of a choreographer, too.

I choreographed routines for cheer teams, marching bands, musical casts, and once, a huge crowd of people who fell down like Dominos at the end of the song, spelling out the word “W-E-L-C-O-M-E” with their bodies.

And you know what?

I loved every stinkin’ minute of it.

But then I got old, injured, and intimidated by the girls who were dancing “in the big leagues.” So I decided that I wasn’t a dancer or a choreographer anymore.

End of story.

But recently, I read a blog post that made me rethink that decision…

THE BIRTH OF “THE CHOREOGRAPHER”
In the post, the writer lists the top 5 “people, places and things that will be on top of the mountain a year from now,” one of which is a role he dubs “the choreographer”…

“…quick moving, creative, optimistic businesses are going to need someone who can harness all this dynamic energy. This is where the choreographer comes in. Someone who can align the researchers with the account teams; coordinate the digital team with the ad buys and make sure that it all looks and feels right. No mean feat, but crucial to insuring that an integrated marketing plan delivers the goods.”

When I read that description I thought, “hey, that’s me!”

Every day I wake up, look at my Twitter feed and think, “Crispy crackers, I missed a lot while I was sleeping! Time to take the pulse of the industry, make a game plan and start making things happen.”

Then, my team and I do just that.

We read up on the latest technologies, navigate uncharted terrain, translate and train, pull it all together into uber marketing or PR strategies, and then direct everyone’s efforts to implement them so they achieve measureable results.

The reality is that I never stopped being a choreographer…I just started choreographing different things.

SO WHAT’S YOUR NEW ROLE THIS YEAR?
The nature of doing business is changing daily, giving birth to a host of new job titles, responsibilities and roles like “the choreographer.”

So, let go of your preconceived notions of what your industry really needs this year (Another book? Another blog? Another “Twitterlebrity?”) You don’t have to be an author, start a blog or be the next Gary Vaynerchuck to make an impact.

I’d wager that what your industry needs most are solutions.

And, it’s entirely possible that you alone have the innate skills to provide those solutions – skills that may take the shape of a role no one has even dreamed of naming yet.

Think back to those moments in your life when your passion reared its glorious head and revealed your natural talents for all the world to see.

Those are the skills your industry needs.

Those are the skills that will put you and your business on the map this year.

For me, the lesson is that, at heart, I will always be a choreographer. And perhaps the world needs my ability to “stage the big production number” now, more than ever.

So instead of mapping out a physical journey through a song, now I’m aggregating the information in tweets, posts and feeds and using it to create a different kind of path for people to follow.

In the end, it’s no less beautiful for me to watch unfold – a series of calculated moves that, once implemented, leaves a wake, stretched out end to end, that spells one word…

S-U-C-C-E-S-S.