A lot of people are still struggling a lot with this whole social web thing. We are hyper connected – our smart phones are rarely out of reach. We’re bombarded with information 24/7, and have a hard time filtering (or we filter too much). And the problem is, we are losing a lot in the shuffle. I firmly believe that the evolution of communication is slowing down. My fear is, if we slow down too much, we’re going to become stuck. There’s too much information, and sadly, it’s of the wrong kind. We’re giving up critical thinking and diving into the fishbowl because it’s easier and faster and we think we don’t have time for anything else. We’ve fallen victim to bad habits, and we’re addicted to information and mass consumption and brain candy and fluff. I’m as guilty of it as anyone else. But like kicking any bad habit, there is a way out. By taking back control of what we consume, we can start on a new path. The big purge. A few weeks ago, I went on a rampage inside my Google Reader. I deleted ALL of my subscriptions in one fell swoop and started over. I decided that from here on in, I will only subscribe to sources that consistently make me think. No more fluff, no more “Top 72 Ways To…”. Only smart, compelling, thought provoking writers now make it into my stream. I still need to stay on top of tech news, so I subscribed to a few sources that provide consistently good, well researched, insightful information about trends and technologies. The result is about 20 or so top quality sources that I look forward to reading every morning. I am finding so much smart stuff to read now, that I run out of time and end up saving a lot of stuff to read later (I love the Readability app for this). Habit #1: Unsubscribe from anything that doesn’t provide you consistent, useful insights and tremendous value. It’s a bit scary hitting “Unsubscribe” from everything. You’ll have that feeling that you are going to miss out on something. But you know what? The sources that I love made it back into the stream. The ones I forgot about weren’t meant to be there in the first place. The small network. I’ve been very intrigued by small networks lately. I find myself spending more and more time in smaller conversations, and I am really enjoying the level of insight and connection I get from experiences I’m having in some Facebook Groups, and even small conversations on Google+. I’ve also recently rejoined Path, where I am connecting with a super-small group of personal friends. There’s a time and place for being able to connect with large groups of people. But I think the real gold is inside the small, super-connected networks. I learn more from interactions with a few than I ever do from being one of thousands. Habit #2: Join some small networks. Join or start a Facebook Group around something you’re passionate about. Try out Path (but keep your network there small and personal). I guarantee your experience will be richer and more thought provoking, and you’ll learn a lot about group dynamics that you can then translate to the larger experience. I think the companies and individuals that are most successful online are the ones who figure out how to talk to many, but do it in a way that makes their audience feel like they’re one of a few. And that can only really happen by understanding what makes the small group tick. The break. Hyper-connectivity is putting many people at risk. On a daily basis you see people who are stressed out because their connection to their email and smart phone is constant. They can’t get away from work and down time seems like it’s not an option. People sleep with their phones and tablets next to the bed (guilty), and there’s a continuous stream of notifications coming at us from multiple directions. It’s causing us to lose our focus, but more importantly it’s causing us to lose our ability to think. Just look at Facebook these days – it’s turned into a continuous flow of images with text on them – funny sayings, “inspirational” messages, and so on. It’s the junk food TV of the Internet. Habit #3: Walk away from your devices and shut off all notifications. An interesting thing happens when you take back control of how information is delivered to you, by putting down the device for a while and/or by shutting off notifications. You get your mind back. The space that’s created by not consuming the constant flow of information is a space where you’ll be able to absorb what’s really important and apply critical thinking to it. It will help you figure out how to deal with this new communication in a much more effective way. You’ll feel lighter and achieve more. Ultimately, developing new habits around new communication is about taking back control of your online experience. Instead of letting it bombard you with mindless fluff, you’re spending time seeking out and consuming only the information that matters to you, with the groups of people that matter to you. At first, you’ll feel like you’re missing out. But trust me, after the new habits start to take hold, you’ll see the amazing benefits. [photo by Ed Townend]
Survival Tips For The Post-Social Media Era
Yesterday I wrote about “social media” as we know it going away. Thanks to everyone who read the post and shared it, I’m glad you liked it. It’s shown me that this is an important topic and one that needs to be talked about even more. Oh, and I’m sorry about the comments being messed up, they are fixed now if you want to go in and add your thoughts. Ok, so I’ve mused that “social media” is going to eventually become just like any other media. For marketers and business people, it will become just another tool in their arsenal to help them spread messages and sell (that is, if they don’t screw it up too badly). That’s all fine and well, but what does that mean to the average person? If “social media” is going away, what happens next? How can you stay relevant in a world where everyone knows the same secret? Tell your story. Everything, and I mean everything, is a story. This blog is a place to share the stories that swirl around in my head. When I tell people about Jester Creative, or MyMusic, I’m telling them a story about what it’s like to work on my passions. When I post photos of my cats, I am telling a story about my love of animals. If you look hard enough, you’ll find the stories in your life too. Small, common, everyday things are a story. Right now, I’m sitting on the patio next to the pool, drinking a coffee, writing and listening to the birds. The story is the sound of the morning from my house, which is not like the story of the sound of the morning at yours. It’s my experience and my perception of that experience that makes the story. At first you’ll think that nobody wants to hear your stories. I did too. Tell them anyway, and you will be shocked at who wants to, and will continue to listen. And don’t push people to listen. Shouting at people and using broadcast tactics to get A-lister attention is not the route to go (in the big scheme of things, A-lister attention is fleeting at best). Just tell your stories. At first it will seem like nobody is listening (I think my Mom was the only one who read my blog for about the first two years – thanks Mom!). But persist, and eventually you’ll connect with someone. Be patient and consistent and tell the stories YOU want to tell. It will happen in time. Be yourself. I’m so sick and tired of the “I want to keep my personal life personal and my business life business so I am going to work extra hard in the online world to keep them absolutely separate at all costs” thing. Look, if you’re going to be online, interacting, participating, whatever, then you need to lose that personal/business thing. Now. I don’t mean you shouldn’t have boundaries. If you don’t want to post photos of your kids, don’t. Simple. My boundaries are that I never talk about politics or religion online. There are certain aspects of my private life I keep private. And if I’m going somewhere by myself I never broadcast where I am. I get to choose (and so do you), but what you see online is the real me, not some business-fied, stuffy, boring version of me. I am pretty open about everything else in my life. I share the inane details of my day, because they are great conversation starters. I am absolutely myself online, and if you’ve ever met me in person you know that I am the same person here as I am “in real life”. I don’t separate business and personal because to me, it’s all personal. Why the heck would anyone want a different me online than off? It makes no sense. So get over it. If you want to be online, it’s GOT to be personal. It’s GOT to be the real you. Period. Give a crap. You know who the winners are going to be when all this “social media” stuff goes away? Not the “social media” consultants that are focused on the tools, that’s for sure. It will be the people that give a crap about other people. Yes, the web is a noisy place. It’s not going to get any quieter either. If you’re going to be invested online then you need to keep paying attention to what other people are doing. And I don’t mean just in business. You need to read your friends’ and colleagues’ and acquaintances’ tweets and blogs and watch their videos. You need to be aware of what is going on in their lives, and you need to CARE. Who cares if you don’t know someone that well? If they post about their successes, congratulate them. If they are having a rough time, send them a supportive message. And, if you get the chance to see an online friend in person, even if you’re too busy to stop, take 20 seconds and hug them and say hi. Believe me, it means the whole world. Give a genuine flying crap about other people, and you will succeed. At that point, the tools don’t matter one bit anymore. People will always matter more than Twitter. Ultimately, if you’re not sharing your story, being yourself and caring intensely about others, you’re just pointing and clicking. And in a post-social media world, that will get you nowhere fast. So, why don’t you start by telling me your story? I want to hear it. [photo by Mikelo] Posted with Blogsy
When Social Media Goes Away
I just got back from a “social media” conference. It was a fantastic conference, put together by the fine folks at Jugnoo. It was chock full of what some people like to call “social media” rock stars, like Geoff Livingston, Gini Dietrich, Danny Brown and Gary Vaynerchuk. (Here's a news flash. These folks aren't really “social media” rock stars. The truth is, none of them really spend much time talking about “social media”.) What I loved about SocialMix was that I finally feel like the conversation at these events is moving beyond “social media”. To be blunt, I'm really flippin' sick and tired of “social media”. We have taken the tools of the modern Internet and put them in an ugly box, tied tight with a tacky ribbon. We guard them and protect them like they are some secret recipe for becoming a millionaire. We say things like “Garyvee used Twitter to make 50 million dollars, so I want to do that too!” Don't you see how ridiculous that sounds? Gary didn't make 50 million dollars off Twitter. Gary made 50 million dollars because he worked his face off. He did it because he figured out a way to use channels (video and micro-blogging) to sell stuff. The goal was (and is) always selling stuff. The goal was not Twitter. See the difference? Social media is going to go away. I don't mean it's going to die. In fact, it's here to stay, so you'd better get used to it. What I mean is, eventually, we won't call things “social media” anymore. It will be media, communication, channels, marketing, or in other words, terms that have existed for eons. And that also means, if you're entirely focused on social media as your sole profession, it might be time to think again. My wise friend Ian Gordon said the most remarkable thing the other night at dinner, so remarkable that I'm ready to have t-shirts made. He said, “There are no telephone consultants.” His point was that when the telephone was invented, it was a huge shift in the way people communicated. In fact, lots of people were against it. They found it complicated and confusing. Why would I ever “telephone” someone when I could just go see them or write them a letter? What ever would I say on a “telephone”? Sound familiar? Over time, people got the hang of it, to the point where the telephone itself took a back seat to what it was useful for. People focused on the communication, not the device. Today, when I pick up the phone to call someone I don't think to myself, “Ok! I need to speak to Jon. What tool should I use to do that?” I just pick up my phone and dial. (You could substitute email in that example if you like.) How many email consultants are there? Telephone consultants? And how many “social media” consultants are there? Exactly. Eventually, “social media” will become so ubiquitous that we won't even think about it as such. Yet so many people are banking everything on being an expert at Twittering. It's time to move beyond the tools, people. I hate to break it to you, but Twitter won't make you 50 million dollars. Blood, sweat and tears will. The conversations I was grateful to be part of at SocialMix revolved around storytelling, context-relative influence (the only real kind of online influence, in my opinion), and effective communication, not the new features of the latest social platform. Not “viral”. Not “engagement”. Not “relationships”. It's time to move beyond “social media”. It's a buzzword and only takes us so far. There are no telephone consultants, because people don't care about telephones. They only care about what telephones do. I don't care about “social media” either. I only care about what it does. [photo by greggoconnell] Posted with Blogsy
The Backstage View of Creating Great Content
It's music festival season, and for me, as part of the content team at MyMusic.com, that has meant spending many hours in the past few weeks on site at festivals, finding and sharing stories. We've interviewed several bands, and me and the team have spent the first three songs of many shows taking photos. All this requires us to spend most of our festival time backstage. From this perspective, one gets a completely different view of how these giant events come together. Most of us are used to attending concerts and festivals from one angle – the audience. You show up, give your ticket, find a seat or a grassy spot, and camp out with the crowd. Sometimes you're lucky to be close to the stage, other times you're further back. When the show starts, you see nothing but the full, polished experience. It's spectacular, engaging and entertaining. It leaves you wanting more. That polished, slick show is why you pay your money. You're paying for an experience. What you don't see is what goes on behind the scenes. In fact, the people in charge of putting this stuff together go to great lengths to ensure you don't see it. You don't see the people who build the stages and set up the speakers and lights – that's already done when you get there. You don't see the publicists and record reps working tirelessly to ensure the artists are happy and promoted and on schedule. You don't see the catering department's days of effort to make sure people are fed and watered well. And you don't see the immense hard work the performers have put in to get to be on that stage in the first place. You don't see them agonizing over writing a good song. You don't see them battling it out in the studio to record a hit album. You don't see the hours and days and months and years of practice they've had to endure to bring you that perfect live show. But when you're backstage, you see it all. You see a hub of activity, and you see all of the pieces gelling together for one complete purpose; to put on the best show possible for the fans that have paid to be there. I've yet to meet an artist or band In the past 20 years who doesn't deeply appreciate and respect the fact that people are showing up just to see them perform. That's why they put in so much hard work. They know they need to give their fans the best they have to offer. When you're backstage before a show, you can feel the energy of the performers and all of the people who support them in putting on their show. They are driven by the audience they are paid to entertain. It's a wonderful, and creatively satisfying feeling. So what does this all mean to you as a content maker? Creating great content like a rock concert – in order to put on a polished show, you have to work very hard to perfect the pieces and parts that bring it all together: There are no overnight successes and no shortcuts. You have to put in the hours, days, weeks, months and years. Every day, bring your absolute best to your audience. Show up ready to perform. If what you have to offer is of great quality, and is polished and slick, it shows you've put the effort in and you will be rewarded. You don't have to tell the world how hard you're working. If you are producing something remarkable, they will know how hard you worked. Surround yourself with people you trust and who have no ulterior motives. Raise them up and they will raise you up in return. Have immense respect and gratitude for the people who take the time to listen to you, always. They will keep coming if you keep giving them the appreciation they deserve. Practice. Then practice some more.Then practice some more. Then practice some more. If it seems too hard, it's probably worth doing. The harder you work, the more hours you put in, the more polished you'll look on the outside. If you want to create something great, this is what it takes. While it's important sometimes to go out and stand in the crowd so you can see what they see, know that most of the hard work is done from the other side of the stage. Focus your efforts on perfecting things from that side, and you'll find that the show you put on will get the attention it deserves. Posted with Blogsy
How To Be a Passionate Producer
First, if you’re not reading Julien Smith’s blog, “In Over Your Head”, you need to start. And if you’re not sure where to start, read his post “19 Thoughts About Finding Your Purpose”. And if you don’t think you have time to read a whole blog post (which is bull$#!t, as Julien would say), then just read the first line of the post. “Those who win are producers, not consumers.” Read it again. “Those who win are producers, not consumers.” There’s a problem with this statement. While the statement is 100% accurate, how people will often interpret that statement creates a huge issue. Many people read it and say “Great! How can I put as little time and effort as possible into producing something in order to get lots of Google Juice and have it retweeted by an A Lister so that I can win, too?” Hi, my name is Producer. When people ask me what I do for a living, I’ll often say I’m a producer. It’s the role I most identify with (I started my career in the 1990’s producing television) and I think it best describes what I do on a regular basis. I produce content. It takes on many forms. This blog is content I produce. My e-book is content I have produced. I produce video and photo and written content (with a great team) for MyMusic.com. I co-produce a podcast. I am helping to create a web series. I develop and deliver training courses, which could be considered another form of producing. I give presentations and seminars – more producing. My roles are different in all of these jobs, but the end result is the same – content is being produced. There are two kinds of producers. There are producers who simply blast things out. It doesn’t come from anywhere except a desire to get traffic. Then there are producers who produce because they have genuine passion for what they produce. The former (blaster) producer produces because they think it’s what they are supposed to do to gain popularity and get traffic and please their boss. The latter (passion) producer produces because they have no other choice. They HAVE to produce. It’s deep inside their soul to produce. Producing for passion. I first met John Meadows at Podcamp Toronto in 2007. John’s a very unassuming guy – quiet, highly intelligent, with a quirky sense of humour and a definite way with words. 99.9% of the time he has a camera around his neck. 99.999% of the time it’s a vintage camera. Like, film (remember film?). John has a photo blog called “My Third Eye”. Almost every single day, John posts a new photo he’s taken with one of his vintage cameras and developed himself, with a brief caption. He describes the kind of camera, type of lens and developing method he uses. His photos are brilliant and the stories attached to them make you appreciate his talent even more. He’s keeping the dying art of film photography alive in a digital world. Here’s the thing. John is not a professional photographer (though his photographs are definitely of a very high calibre professional quality). Nope. He’s got a day job that has nothing to do with taking photos. Yet he still finds time to seek out great models, get out there with his cameras, get into the dark room, and then do the most important thing – put them out there for us to see and enjoy. He produces, every single day, out of passion, and it shows absolutely in his work. John is not producing so he can get a million page views. He’s producing because he is absolutely passionate about photography. So if John doesn’t have a million page views, is he successful? Of course he is. In fact, he’s much more successful than those blasting producers who throw out linkbait-ey “5 Ways to Produce a Better Blog” posts that do nothing but link back to Mashable articles. Why? Because “My Third Eye” is real. When you look at John’s blog, you look into John’s soul, into the very thing that motivates him to get out of bed in the morning. It’s personal and raw and real. It’s expression in its purest form. And it works 100% of the time. Produce for the RIGHT reasons. You want to be successful in this world? Produce for passion. A lot of people don’t know that I was a technical writer for 5 years. I wrote documentation, help files, and the like for a range of compelling topics such as long-haul fiber optic networks and IT Security (sorry if you’re one of those people who finds these topics actually compelling – personally, it’s not for me!). I was a capable tech writer, but lacked any sort of passion for the subject matter. So, for 5 years I just went about my 9 to 5 days, making sure my work was technically accurate and had been spell checked, and nothing more. I decided after that experience, that I would no longer produce things I wasn’t passionate about, because I know that when I’m not passionate, I don’t do my best work. Yes, we all have bills to pay, which means we occasionally have to take a passion-less gig. But I’ve found that the projects for which I’m passionately producing end up having the largest payoff, both from the standpoint of job satisfaction, and financially. So now, I focus on those. Sometimes you need to be patient and hold out for the passion work. And if you can’t find the passion work right now? Keep your day job, but find a way to produce passionately. I promise you, it will only lead to very, very good things. [photo by Linda Cronin]
What It Means to be Canadian
Like many other countries, Canadians spend lots of time complaining about their country. Taxes are too high, hospital wait times are too long, our politicians stink, our government officials are crooks…the list goes on ad nauseum. I don’t spend a lot of time in that mode. In fact, one thing you’ll never hear me talk about on Facebook or Twitter is politics. I just don’t like to go there, because it usually ends up on some sort of negative bitch-fest about how awful we have it here in the Great White North. I couldn’t disagree with that last statement more. Sunday July 1st is Canada Day. It’s the celebration of our becoming a country, but we prefer to refer to it as “Canada’s Birthday”. This year, our country will be 145 years old. How do we celebrate? Much the way you’d expect. Parties, barbeques, fireworks, music, dancing, and hanging out with friends and family. As you’d also expect, there’s generally a lot of beer. Being Canadian to me is not about the competence level of our politicians. It’s not about how much I pay in taxes. For me, being Canadian is to be fortunate to live in the greatest country on Earth. It’s to know that we DO live up to our reputation of being super friendly, exceedingly polite and plenty of fun. It’s the comfort of being safe in my own home and community. It’s the peace of mind that if I get sick, I will be taken care of. It’s the sense of ownership I have of this great land – of our coast to coast to coast mentality. We are all so different in this country, but whether it’s the fishermen and women of Newfoundland, the businesspeople bustling on streets of Toronto or the amazing culture and tradition of our many Aboriginal Peoples – we are all united by this great land that we are part of. In the past 6 years or so that I’ve been connecting with people from all over the world, I have learned even more about what it is to be Canadian. But while I do see the things that make us different, I also see the many things that make us the same. When I’m talking to people like Jon in Indiana, Stefan in Sweden, or Ali in Ireland, I feel such a strong sense of camaraderie and friendship. Culturally, we may have our differences. Politically, we have our own views. But humanly, we have each other. The world is a smaller place now. I’m proud to be Canadian, perhaps more proud of that than any other thing. I live in the greatest country in the world and every day I’m thankful to have been born and raised here, and that I’ll live the rest of my days here. Have a Happy Canada Day, eh.
Playing in the Sandbox of Creativity
I started SuzeMuse in 2006. I literally chose the name when I set up my first WordPress blog. The sign up form was sitting there, staring at me, waiting for me to type something. Given that “Susan Murphy” is a rather common name, it was, of course, already taken. Suze is a nickname my Dad gave me when I was a kid (and one many people have called me since). I figured that this blog was going to be not a lot more than me ‘musing’ about life, the Universe and everything….so SuzeMuse it became. That’s about as much thought as I put into my “brand”. I carried the handle over to social networks when I started there, mostly out of convenience (who wants to remember multiple sign in IDs?). But again, as I ventured in 2007 into the world of things like Twitter and Facebook, I found that the name sort of stuck. I’d go to events and suddenly I wasn’t known as Susan or Sue. I was “Suzemuse”. The reason I say all this is that, way back then, when I was just getting interested in this social media stuff, I didn’t agonize over what I was going to call myself, or how I was going to develop my personal brand. I was sandboxing. Play to learn. Back in 2006, there weren’t a lot of people talking about social media. Well, there was Chris. And he had a lot to teach us (and still does). But 99% of what I learned about WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, communicating online, talking in 140 characters, writing a good blog post? I learned it from fussing around with it. I broke things a lot. I’d install plugins on my blog and crash the whole server. I’d tweet something I thought was really important and get zero response. I’d tweet something inane and get tonnes of response. I’d shoot a video and agonize for hours over why the stupid thing wouldn’t export properly. I was never afraid to mess around with the media. I was frustrated when I broke stuff, but I was never hard on myself about it. I just cleaned up the mess, learned from it and move on. I read incessantly. Hours a day on blogs and books. I listened to podcasts. I watched videos. Nobody told me which ones to watch. I found them by looking around and I listened to the people who resonated with me. I played. And I played some more. Shovel, bucket, sandcastle. I spent hours and hours filling my bucket with sand. One small plastic shovel full at a time. Eventually, I had enough sand in my bucket to flip it over and build a piece of the wall. Over time, I filled more buckets, and the wall started to get higher. The castle began to take shape. Then a remarkable thing happened. People started to come and visit. They left comments. They @replied to me. They shared what I was saying with others. My sandbox had become a place that others wanted to play in too. It took a while, it took playing in it every day on my own, until someone else came along and asked to play too. But my perseverance paid off. Eventually, these connections, this sharing…evolved into something else I didn’t imagine happening. New opportunities for my business started to emerge. People enjoyed visiting my sandbox, saw so much value in what I was doing there, that they were willing to take the relationship to the next level (the one that involved money). Again, I didn’t set out to do any of this. I went in with my “play to learn” attitude. I’ve never lost that. This blog is still my sandbox. It’s still an experiment. I learn here, then share what I know with my students and clients. My newest experiment is, I’ve set up a Facebook page for this blog. Will it work? I haven’t a clue. But I’m going to try to share more stuff there. I’m making my sandbox a bit bigger, to see what I might be able to learn from that too. So, what’s in your sandbox? [photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiljainenmies/]
Easing the Financial Risk of Self Employment
This September, my partner and I will be celebrating 10 years of having our own business. I’ve learned about a million things in that time. Some of them were hard lessons. Others taught me a lot about my abilities. All of it has raised my self confidence and skills to new levels. Taking the plunge into self employment has been the single most frightening and rewarding thing I’ve done in my 20+ year career. A lot of people are terrified of going into business for themselves. Fom my experience, a big part of that fear is the uncertainty of not having a steady paycheque. I’ll be blunt. You have good reason to be afraid. There’s a common misconception that starting your own company is easy. You just peruse your LinkedIn contacts, go to a few networking events and before you know it you’re swimming in money and projects. The truth is, this very rarely happens. In fact, you may go months before you see your first contract. And even if you get one, you may work for months before seeing any money at all. And once you do get that first, big, juicy cheque? By the time you pay the bills you couldn’t pay because you were waiting on a cheque, rent, insurance, and that kid you got to help you set up your web site, your paycheque is much less than it was originally (if you have any money left at all!) But all is not lost. There are solutions to this conundrum. Don’t Give Up Your Day Job When Jen and I first started Jester Creative, we both had jobs. She worked in television and I worked in high tech. We didn’t just up and quit our jobs. Nope, in fact, I kept working for 5 more years, and Jen worked AND had a couple of babies! What did that mean? It meant that we spent a lot of evenings and weekends and time between diaper changes and feedings working on our business. I’d put in an 8 or 9 hour day at work, run home, grab some dinner, and head to Jen’s place for the evening. We would work until 11 or midnight, and I’d get up and do it all again the next day. That work not only helped us to define our business and what we wanted to achieve, but it allowed us to land our first contracts. Those contracts were intregral to us. They didn’t make us a pile of money, but they did win us valuable contacts (some of whom we still work with 10 years later), and gave us some all-important portfolio pieces. Were we tired? You bet. But our work was energizing. And we knew it was a means to an end. In 2006, I gave up my full time job for the last time. Though I wasn’t totally in the black yet (and couldn’t have done it without my husband’s support), I was smart in keeping my job as long as I did. Get a Haircut, and Get a Real Job While I eventually took the important step of breaking the chains of the workaday world, I wasn’t out of the woods yet. In fact, it was quite a struggle for a while. Living on one income, for me and my husband, was tough. There came a point when I had to make a decision. Go back to work full time, or find some sort of part time way to make extra money until the business starts to pay off in a more reliable way. I thought about the things I was good at. I could become a waitress again. Good money and flexible hours, but I totally sucked at it the first time around. Then someone said to me one day (I forget who), “Why not teach? You’ve always been good at it.” I hightailed it down to the local community college and talked to an old classmate who still happened to work there. I walked out with a part time job. Not only has teaching done well to fill the in-between paycheque gaps, it’s opened up a whole new passion for me. I’ve developed curricula, coordinated programs, and given numerous (paid!) talks on technology and education. What started out as some extra cash has taken my career on a course I completely didn’t expect. If you’re considering taking the plunge into self employment, I say DO IT! But do it with some thought into how you’re going to make the transition. Find a way to supplement your income while you grow, either by figuring out how to work it into your existing job, or by finding something to do part time, like teaching. If the college isn’t hiring, go to a community centre. I have a friend who is a multimedia designer, teaches AquaFit and is a professional stand up comic! There are some fun part time jobs out there. Look at some of the things you do well outside your main job. Find something that fits, and pays. Most importantly, don’t give up your dream because you’re afraid of not having enough money at first. Don’t worry, you won’t have enough money at first. Find ways to make up the difference until you don’t need to anymore, and you’ll be just fine.
How to Avoid The “Me Too” Trap of Social Media
Let’s face it. Social media is a big, huge bandwagon and everyone seems to be jumping on it these days. I’ve recently done a huge purge of my Google Reader. I had to. The number of “look at me, I’m a social media expert too!” posts clogging my personal Intertubes were getting so out of hand that I was on the verge of hostility every time I opened my Reader app. Have we really run out of original things to say when it comes to social media? I get that there are lots of people who are seeing the potential business opportunity that exists for the average consultant that gets social media. I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t count myself in that mix. However, I think there is a big difference between selling oneself as someone who can teach people how to tweet (hint: it’s not that hard), and someone who can help people become better communicators in a digital world. So what’s a digital maven to do? Well, I think it starts by spending less time getting caught up in the hype, and more time thinking about what you really want to achieve. Find your own voice Original thought is a wonderful thing. The problem is, many so-called social media “experts” are so entranced by the popularity of social media that they can’t see the forest for the SEO keywords. When was the last time you shut off your Hootsuite Twitter search for the #socialmedia hashtag and just spent time in the stream of people you follow? The other day I tweeted what I was having for lunch, and got into a great conversation with some new people about food and inspiration. I connected and engaged and learned more in that 15 minutes than I’ve learned in 6 weeks of surfing the sea of social media drivel that exists in most of those canned searches. You’ll only find your own voice if you stop listening to the drone of the masses and start focusing on other people. Learn by doing. Sure, read the smart people, but put what they say into practice, instead of blindly following and RT’ing the buzzword of the day. Change the conversation Frankly, I am feeling a bit stuck inside the current conversations around social media. Maybe it’s because I’m an oldtimer (I’ve been a social media nerdgirl since 2006), but more likely it’s because I’m being so bombarded by the “me too” conversation these days. Fortunately, because of the nature of the digital world, I have the power to change the conversation I am having. I can filter out the “become a social media guru for $99 with no effort!” conversation. I can mute the hashtags for the social media Twitter chat du jour. I can unsubscribe from blogs and newsletters that don’t serve me any longer. I can attend events like PAB2012 this weekend, where I can be in a room of people who are more focused on connecting with each other and their shared passion for creating brilliant content than on their Klout scores or FourSquare mayorships. We all have the power to change the conversation we are having, and to avoid falling into the “me too” trap. You get to choose your voice in this space, and you get to shape the conversation. Uniqueness and original thought is what wins out here. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s anything different. Now go forth and be you.
What David Copperfield Can Teach Us About the Magic of Social Media
I remember being about 10 years old the first time I saw David Copperfield do magic on TV. I was absolutely mesmerized. Not only was he quite handsome (I was just about the age where I could pick that trait out easily), but the way he performed – with such a sense of humour and a boy-like wonderment – made the amazing illusions even more captivating. From that point on, I never missed a David Copperfield TV special. If there’s one thing I could not have predicted in a million years, it’s that thirty-some years later I’d be chit-chatting with David Copperfield online. When I discovered the famous illusionist was using Twitter, I followed him immediately. I fully expected it to be just another celebrity Twitter account, either static updates from his “staff” about his upcoming live shows, or a bunch of dull comments about how busy and tired he is. What I found from Mr. Copperfield was something entirely different. He’s making the time. At least 10 times a week, I hear non-celebrity people complaining that while they want to build their business, and they understand that tools like Twitter and Facebook can be used quite effectively to do so, they simply do not have the time to interact on these platforms. Then there’s David Copperfield, who performs over 500 shows per year. Yet, despite the fact that his job requires him to figure out how to disappear jumbo jets and things, he still finds time to not only use social media, but to use it a LOT. He chats with fans on Twitter. He posts photos on Facebook. He does Google Hangouts and Skype sessions. Tonight, he’s even doing a Q and A on Reddit (9pm ET if you’re interested). It’s not about whether you have time. It’s whether you’re willing to make time. If you really want to take advantage of all this online world had to offer, then you need to figure out what you need to give up (hint: “Mad Men” reruns) and just start doing it. He’s having fun. What I like most about following David Copperfield is that he seems to be having a great time. He is constantly interacting, asking questions and saying hi to people in the audience from backstage at the show. He has a great sense of humour, and carries that through in his interactions. But I guarantee you he is not sitting there figuring out his “Return on Influence”, monitoring his Klout score or discovering his Engagement Quotient. Nope, David is simply having fun, interacting with people. Does it help him get more people coming to his shows? You bet your booty it does. But the emphasis is on the people. And we can all learn a lot from that approach. He’s not too old. David is 55. Which means if you fall anywhere up to 25 or so years on either side of that, you’re not too old either. So stop using that as an excuse and just start. Thanks, David Copperfield, for making this girl’s day by chatting with her on Twitter once in a while. But mostly, thanks for showing us how to be a real person, having fun using these online tools. Because social media is a little bit of magic we can all do. [photo by knowhimonline]