Not a bad quote, it’s from a great post I read over at the Do Blog – Dealing with haters.
Very valuable advice, we often forget when we respond to criticism that we’re really talking to everyone else, not the recipient.
Give it a read.
I’ve had a huge influx of readers this year (awesome!), thanks for coming along you’re very much appreciated.
Shining the light briefly (for all my new readers) on my first book The Best Ideas are Free. It’s done hugely well, I’m very proud of it, and it delivers a lot of punch for what it is.
Some of the reviews it’s had:
““The best ideas are free, but it’s hard to know where to find them. Check out this book! Many of them are collected here.” (From Chris Guillebeau of the Art of Nonconformity Blog).
And a few others:
“The wrestle in communication through the user generations is wrapped up and captured perfectly in your book.”
“You’ll see the online world from a different and fresh perspective. It might even turn it upside down ”
“I’m made of rubber! I got that from Chapter Four, where Young says, “There are times when things go sour and all falls apart, you’ve hit rock bottom. No you haven’t. This is just a part of the process of getting to where you need to go, you’re made of rubber, so you need to bounce back, harder, faster and higher than before.” Absolutely, and I love the visual image of bouncing back.”
“The Best Ideas Are Free is the book I credit for driving me to me to create my first blog. Ben is an entrepreneurial and aspirational writer, but what I’ve most enjoyed in the book is that the “ideas” are practical, fast and simple to implement”
Oh and earlier this year Lee Hopkins said:
“None of these 63 ideas are long-winded. At most each will take two minutes to read, but the value of the ideas comes not from their brevity (or perhaps it does). The ideas are not new, but some are startling in how they make your head ‘snap’ in recognition of their ‘rightness’.
When the pupil is ready the teacher will come, goes the ancient saying. Ben therefore can be quite rightly viewed a teacher of men (and women), a shining light in a wilderness dark with wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
If you’d like to check it out:
Also as a final offer you can order below for $23.99usd/copy. And I’ll ship you a signed copy, anywhere in the world.
(Yes it costs more than Amazon, but hey I’ll ship anywhere plus it’s signed!)
Just click the button below, follow the process and email me [email protected] if you have any issues.
This is the last time I’ll offer the opportunity to buy a signed copy The Best Ideas are Free on the blog, so do so whilst you can. At the very least read it online, grab it on Kindle, ideas are better shared and spread.
For all my older readers you can expect the next addition in the final quarter of this year. It’s coming along very very well. I will keep you updated.
You cannot reasonably expect that any information shared online is completely private.
The reality is that we do.
People gossip on Twitter, slant people on Facebook or even upload videos to YouTube. Hell everyone can admit to saying something via email they regret….
Let me explain to you why it’s dead.
Firstly if what you are sharing is juicy enough, the people that see it will get it out, just look at failbooking.com (yes they blur the names) but you get the point, if it’s newsworthy enough it’ll get out.
Michael Phelps found this out when photos of him with drug paraphelia popped up on Facebook – sure enough someone within his network leaked it. So that’s the biggest sieve – YOU and ME. We can’t be trusted.
Everyone is hackable, like the first point, we all have security leaks. Whether it’s the fact all our passwords are the same, we leave our email logged in or our forgotten password questions are weak.
My point is, in a targetted attacked all of us are vulnerable, Sarah Palin even had her Yahoo email hacked during the US election. How? They guessed the answer to her secret question. If it’s online and can be identified as coming from you, chances are someone can eventually access it.
That’s not even getting into how your data is transferred. Under recent law changes ISPS in New Zealand (and many places around the world) have internet filters on, to ensure people don’t access a blacklist of websites, for obvious reasons they don’t publish the list of websites (which rightfully scares some people). However this means, somewhere along the line a computer program is examining the website you’re looking at to see if it’s a ok.
Further the path from your computer to the recipient is loose, work emails for example are often monitored (and archived). If you work in the public sector policy is to retain a copy of all emails. Even then your information is often not secure, frequently instant messaging services do not encrypt their communications, meaning people can snoop in on the conversation.
The longevity of information online is virtually indefinite (in terms of our lifetimes) lets say you say something you regret via email so delete it. However if the recipient doesn’t also do the same… it can pop up again in the future. Online communications leave a breadcrumb… which can be followed.
In short, do not share information you don’t reasonably expect to pop up again at some point in the future. It’s just dumb.
That’s what happens when a project is rushed.
It gets too complex too fast with no foundation.
And then you end up with inferior results.
Slow down, do the dance, get to know each other. Plan for success.
Then you’ll get it.
Or if you can’t slow down, in the shorter timeframe, increase the relationship building efforts. Meet everyday. Twice a day. Or twice a week. Whatever – make sure you build up that relationship the best you can.
Otherwise you end up with a wobbly jenga tower, which will collapse, given a nudge.
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Photo Credit: Egarc2
1) Obsess about your customers.
2) Listen to them.
3) Help them.
It seems changing the colour of a hospital gown to skin colour significantly helps doctors ability to detect health problems (based on the change of colour of their skin). Interesting huh?
And along the same lines.
The fake bus stop in Germany outside a rest home. As Alzheimer’s patients wander off (from the home) they go to bus stop to catch the next bus. Of course buses don’t turn up but it acts as a capture point, whereby the nurses can assist them once they come back to reality. Immoral or moral? I suggest a best case answer to a difficult problem.
The point is, modifying contextual factors can completely change the outcome. Controlling the context to reach favourable outcomes. The first helps doctors do their jobs better and the second helps nurses (and patients) deal with Alzheimer’s.
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(Thanks to Springwise & Radiolab for passing that on).
This week in Auckland it’s:
Each of which is competing for my attention. To be honest that’s hard work (it’s hard for me to even pay attention and care about all these events).
If you’re running an event, have a think, who else is fighting for attention? Can you work together…
As that’s a better win.
That’s what shows up when I Google ‘bwagy’.
Amazing huh?
That’s 19,100 opportunities for me to capture people and then engage them.
I do remember when it was 7 results. Most were typos at that point in time.
Keep in mind, as long as they don’t get deleted, this content will be there for ever.
Produced once, consumed over and over.
I’m not gloating, just saying, one by one it all adds up. Each piece of content started with a thought, then a sentence, then a post. The sum is greater than the individual parts… and I see that day by day more and more people stumbling across what I do.
Definitely food for thought.
Talking about what it is to be uncanny, the uncanny valley but also how to pull yourself out of it.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CWnUKzJzoc
People need to relate to be exposed to a brand a few times before they feel comfortable with it.
Most research seems to put that number at 7.
(Side note: the average sales person gives up after 4 interactions, when the average successful transaction takes 7 interactions.)
That is 7 touchpoints or interactions… (or in short connecting ideas with people).
Did you sign up to Facebook the first time you heard of it? Nope. You probably heard of it in passing, someone said you should sign up and then eventually you had no choice.
Sales people can get quite technical with this, trying to find shortcuts, to get to the magic number faster. However it’s not as simple as that. Once you get that methodical with it you will lose the value.
It’s not the touchpoints which win, it’s that each and everytime you’re building a rapport with your customer. Making real connections and relating to them.
Never ever shortchange the process…
Infinitely easier.
You know the road, the steps, the ability to repeat.
However once you’ve repeated it a few times the value diminishes.
The same goes for Marketing Campaigns.
Fitness (doing the same course repeatedly has diminishing returns).
Business ideas….
But what if doing the same thing did the opposite – kept increasing? Like networking? Writing a blog? A framework that allows for opportunity of new ideas… rather than the exploitation of a singular idea.
Seth talks about the paralysis of unlimited opportunity.
He couldn’t be more right.
It’s easy to get sucked into the buzz of opportunity. There is so so much opportunity. The horizons are unlimited.
However that can be just as paralysing.
Which way do I go when I can go anywhere?
If it is [paralysing]. As Seth says, create artificial limits and most importantly don’t do nothing.
Doing nothing is the complete opposite buzz kill. The more you do, the more opportunities you create.
(Note: See previous post Success formula for next decade. The fastest learner (and applicator) wins.)
PS
Marketers should learn from this…
PPS
So should entrepreneurs…
PPS
Actually just everyone should. But those groups in particular!
Ok I cheated, it’s always been a winning formula.
Get in early, learn like heck, apply continuously, revise, relearn, reapply. That’s a winning strategy.
This is the most worrying terrifying question someone can ask.
Instead of what’s the best dam strawberry we can get?
(Inspired by a strawberry cream cheese croissant I had at Pearl Harbour which had no dairy products or strawberry in it!)
It really is.
I’ve been quite quiet about what Young & Shand has been doing. And that’s because I’ve been flat tack!
One project we’ve done is with the SPCA Petfood. Helping them engage online.
What we noticed right away is people posting pictures of their cats and dogs on the page.
Sharing their own stories.
We didn’t even ask them to! On their own initiative, they wanted to share and had found an outlet.
That above all is the most rewarding part.
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(NB: If you’d like to read more about it, including a pdf, jump over here to the Young & Shand blog.)