A while back I hooked up with a twitter service that would find and befriend people with common interests with me. It ramped up quite quickly and before long I was following over 3000 people and then were following me too. The numbers were great, but something didn’t feel right.
My conscience for one. Twitter is social media. The key word being social and here I was just automatically following thousands of people without getting to know if I wanted to actually follow them. Did I even want to hear from them?
I decided to check out all the people I was following. I was SHOCKED!
I simply wanted to connect with people who were into outdoor activities, online marketing and network marketing. I had also put in a specific filter of words to keep from pornography, drugs, bad language and the like.
What I found was unbelievable, but is typical of what happens when you let a computer build your social connections. A computer which doesn’t understand all the nuances of natural language.
I was ‘following’ erotica, ‘bestporn’ (and I had porn as a filter so it maybe a bug), people with some real nasty language, and people who had absolutely nothing in their profile. I found this part quite disturbing since I specifically wanted to connect with people with outdoor activities, online marketing and network marketing. How can software match me up with profiles that do not match what I’m looking for?
Then there is the thought of what those I was following says about me? When someone searches for me to find out what kind of person I am, they are going to wonder about the apparent disconnect between the way I present myself and what my online profiles imply about me. I don’t want to have to laugh off the results of automation… I want my online presence to represent me.
I write this as a warning to those making use of automated social media software. You need to stay on top of it… daily! I’ve spent over 3 hours so far, ‘unfollowing’ over 1600 and growing people because they’ve got nothing in common with me and I’m simply not interested.
I’m of the firm belief that if you want to be true to the system, you’ve got to personally get in there and do it yourself. Build real connections and keep the spammy software out of it. Some things should never be automated, and I think anyone can agree that social connections is definitely one of those things.
Personally, I want people to find me and think that I’ve got integrity and that I’m not some guy carelessly abusing a system with a numbers game. When my numbers drop, and I’m sure all the auto-unfollows will kick in and drop them, I’ll be able to look at those small numbers and know who I’m providing value to and who I’m getting value from.
Sometimes knowing all the details can keep you from achieving your real goals and have you settle for something less.
I’ve heard it called paralysis by analysis. It’s very true and I know many people (including myself) who get caught up with it. You know what I mean; it is summed up in the classic old saying: ‘better safe than sorry’.
An excellent example of this happened to me recently.
A couple of months ago, my family and I decided we really wanted to be runners.
Enthusiastically, I went out and registered us in a local 5Km race two months down the road.
I also got the C25K iPhone app (great for interval training) to help train use using an interval plan called ‘Couch to 5Km’. It was great and we really needed it. As an office worker of 20+ years, I’d spend a bit too much time sitting than walking.
We started and kept up for a month, but then spring and after school activities soon pushed our training to the side and before we knew it there was only 2 weeks left to train. It had been a month since the last time we’d trained and we’d only gotten to week 4 of the 9 week training.
Clearly it was crunch time.
We tried week 5 and although it hurt a bit, we’d managed to complete it. With C25K, you don’t know how far you’ve gone; it is all based on time for endurance.
Two days before the race we ran 9 laps around the school yard which we’d estimated with google maps to be about 5.5 Km in total. A tough run, but we made it.
Finally race day was on us. We shared the road with almost 9,000 other people and it was great. Our first run and it was smooth running in the first half. At the 4Km mark, I was tired and my muscles started to complain a bit.
By the time we crossed the line, my legs were feeling the exertion but we were so pumped up and happy that we’d completed the race that after taking care of a few things and talking with a number of people, we jogged another half Km to the car.
The next day, my calves locked up on me and it seemed that all I could do was cycle or run; walking and going down stairs was out. Strange but true. It stayed with me for a couple of days and I wondered why? I’d run 5.5Km two days before the race without this problem, why now?
Several days after the race, I took a GPS based running app for the iPhone (Runmeter – I *highly* recommend) and ran the school yard. It was only 3Km!
A full 2 kilometers short! It certainly explains my calves.
Thinking on that, I’m glad I didn’t know until after the race. Realizing I’d only trained to half the 5Km race, I may have considered walking and taking short breaks to offset my lack of full and proper training.
In the end, I’d put in a far better effort and achieved more because I didn’t know all the details. It’s my firm belief that this is a great example of the difference between successful and not so successful people.
The successful people are more action driven.
It’s not that they don’t have a plan and simply go out and do things; they do plan and when it’s ‘good enough’ for execution, they execute.
By contrast, not so successul people, will be hesitant and flesh out more details than is required.
As in my experience above, you may feel a bit of pain, but it was well worth the ’sacrifice’ to get the achievement. I would not have been as happy with my results had I taken it easy to offset the lack of training and instead I get to walk around knowing I can do 5Km and to be proud of that accomplishment. Well worth the discomfort of those calves!
May 10
5
Outsourcing As A Way Of Life?
My wife and I like to walk through the local bookstore from time to time while the kids are at school and recently we came across a magazine with an article that caught our attention.
“Outsourcing how to ride a bike”
I had to read it and bought the magazine. My only thought was how silly the world was getting that something as simple as teaching your child how to ride a bicycle was being handed off to strangers. As you can imagine that train of thought leads into a discussion with my wife about the degradation of society and how the strength family unit was weakening. And of course, I was blaming exactly these kinds of things – outsourcing various aspects of raising children.
Was I wrong? I mean really? The more children are raised by strangers the weaker our family bonds are right?
Perhaps I was wrong. I finally read the article. I started with the preconceived ideas I shared above. As I read, I gained some interesting insights into other parents situations. Some were terrified that their child would fall and hurt themselves. Some would only have weekends and so their kids would take a very long time to learn.
But still, there is the loss of that magical bonding moment right? Your child finally gets it and you get to share in that triumph. How would you ever get that back?
Well, I read further. And the answer came quite clearly. A mother came to pick up her boy the first day, and upon seeing her, he triumphantly asked her to watch him while he showed her that he could ride down stairs. She got to be a part of that victory after all.
So perhaps there isn’t any problem with outsourcing some things; even if they seem close to the heart.
Did you catch the main benefit I slipped in there? The boy rode down stairs! I haven’t taught my boys to do that yet, though I suspect the two oldest are ready. The boy was not only taught to ride a bicycle, but he was taught advanced skills so that he can handle somewhat difficult situations.
Therein lies the key to outsourcing; having people with greater expertise perform the tasks you need done for you. No different than having your mechanic take care of your car. You don’t have the same expertise or perhaps the time to devout proper attention to your car and so you outsource that responsibility to a professional you feel can handle the job to your satisfaction and within your budget.
It really helped me to put outsourcing into a better perspective and appreciate how common it is and has been throughout history. It seems to me that we lost sight of it in the last century and are starting to “rediscover” it in this century.
Posted in Personal Development by .
When I first started with online marketing, I was overwhelmed with information. There really is too much out there, and a lot of it just isn’t worth it… not even as a free report. In an effort to help others skip my growing pains and jump straight to the good stuff, I’ve done a quick review of Building On A Budget.
Check it out at Russell Speed Reveals The Truth About Building On A Budget
Let me know what you think as I will be doing more reviews of all the products I’ve got and will get.
Posted in Internet Marketing by .
Mar 10
21
Ripped off or real value?
Last game of the season we are going to go to. We don’t go very often, maybe 4 or 5 games. Naturally with three young boys it’s a bit of a deal to go to the game.
Great right? You get to be there when the action is happening. You feel the excitement and electricity in the air!
One of my sons was given the tickets as a reward for volunteering to help teachers in the classrooms during his recess. More accurately he asked to volunteer which is pretty impressive but for another time.
My wife and I rearranged our schedule to accommodate the game. We remembered that another of our sons was itching for a hot dog so when there we stopped at the hot dog stand and ordered 5 italian sausages; their eyes got bigger when they saw those of course!
$6 each! Man the guy at the corner ripped me off at 4.75. These guys are getting me good because I’m at the stadium and am obviously not going to leave. Man what a rip!
I bought them, ate them and added to the whole experience. That is the point.
I really didn’t care that I had to spend such a high price for something I could get cheaper somewhere else because I wouldn’t have had the experience I had at the stadium.
As online marketers, people can easily feel ripped off with our products and service. We need to market the experience or life style that the product or service will offer them.
I didn’t feel ripped off for the hot dogs once I concidered the whole experience I was buying.
Probably their rent alone requires the higher prices and is justified. That doesn’t matter to their customers. It’s their problem.
Remember, as network marketers, we are not selling products and services to fill our wallets. We are helping people to better their lives by providing value – real value.
