You Look Important

The mayor of Kansas City just told me I looked important. 

Why did it strike me? 

This made me feel some type of way and it took me awhile to unpack it. But here it is. Unpacked. 

My first thought was disappointed that he even noticed me. He said it in jest. Like I was important to the event or maybe even the campus. As embarrassed as I felt that he noticed me, he did notice. Most people don’t. Most people don’t realize the work that goes on behind the scenes. When something goes wrong or there is even a tiny blip, everyone notices. When things goes smoothly, everyone moves on with their day without a second thought. That’s the magic. And the magic is a ton of work. 

Mayor Quinton Lucas came to my campus to speak to our students. It originally was a small classroom talk that turned into a bigger conversation with multiple classes. A whole event. 

The thing about this event was that I wasn’t the magic. I did nearly nothing for this event. I checked in at the event, but others planned and executed it so perfectly.

It was a fun day. 

As I arrived as a guest to the event, I made sure our IT crew was set. The student speaker to the event approached me (because I was checking in with the IT professionals) and asked me when to begin and what to do. Not knowing the agenda, I made sure she was good with the buttons on the mic and promised her I would let her know when to go on, etc. I helped direct the initial flow of the event, but never was directly involved. Simple things. 

I want to be unseen when doing these types of events. I don’t want to be noticed. To be noticed is making a scene. I’m just there to make sure it goes on perfectly like I am never there. 

At the end of the event, as people approached the mayor for pictures, I grabbed phones and ended up being the unofficial mom taking cell phone pictures for their social media posts. Heck, I even took the official event photographer’s picture with the mayor. People gave me their phones before they even approached the mayor, and I was delighted to be there to capture their moment. It was so fun to see our students engage with government. 

And then, as the event concluded, I asked, 

“Can I get a quick selfie?” 

And he said to me, “What do you do? You look important?” 

My coworkers laughed at the comment and were like, yeah. She’s important. 

I simply said, “I’m 417Kim on Twitter and work in operations.”

Why did it strike me? 

I think because I was nothing. I didn’t try to wear a bright MCC blue dress with a blazer. I didn’t run the event. I didn’t write the script or production schedule. I wasn’t noticed because I looked like I was in charge with a clipboard in hand and headset in my ear. I wore a simple sweater and black jeans. Nothing special. Not here to be seen. 

I did incremental tiny actions that someone noticed. Everyday so many of us do giant actions to make everything around us operate like no one did it. And it’s a lot of work. 

From open to close in any operation, if you don’t notice anything, it means a ton of work went into you not noticing. 

I think it was a culmination of (thankfully) never being noticed at the giant productions and operations I am charge of, but then also a very important person noticing the tiny things that no one else ever notices. 

If you are the person attending an event or really any place of business and you don’t notice anything, thank the people. Let them know you know that they did the work. Be the person who notices.

If you are in charge of something that runs smoothly every day, I feel like you may get this. Whether it’s an event, a program, an operation, or project. I say this to you: when people think everything just happens smoothly with a wave of a wand and a snap of a finger like magic, please always remember: 

You are the magic. 

You are important.