Whoever You Are:
This is my newly-featured column. Adam J. Kovitz (who loves to see his name in print) appeared to me in a vision and said, "Son, I believe it is time for you to write about whatever you want to write about, instead of the usual insipid, prosaic pap that I force you write about. Go off and build a life for yourself. Make me proud. Try not to be too graphic or use too much profanity."
I ask everyone -- WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU?
I receive more than 100 emails per hour, I belong to well in excess of 100 "social media" groups (and that's not including LinkedIn), and I literally receive dozens of news alerts, blog comments and ezine bulletins weekly. I am inundated (as is everyone else) with sensorial input. Most of what I receive is useless, meaningless junk.
For example:
- "How I get more followers on Twitter!";
- "Great App (Application) for Social Media -- MediaMashup";
- "Make money with your website...it's automatic...you can't stop earning money with this system (even if you want to!)";
- "Optimize Your Search Engine Ranking with Adwords!";
- "Coverage of the Business Roundtable Power Breakfast and Bowling Event in Izzard, Iowa.";
- "Make Your Summer The Best Networking Season of Your Year";
- "Biggest Payouts in the Industry!";
- "A Firmer Handshake -- A Better Connection";
- "Get Your Piece of The Government Bailout";
- "How Helping Others will Make Your Rich!';
- "How to get 25,000 Fans on your FaceBook Fan Page.";
- "Attitude Makes All the Difference";
- Viagra and Cialis solicitations in Cantonese;
- Offers from various corrupt, but very polite African Bankers from Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Liberia, and Diptheria whose rich client died (usually in a tragic plane crash) without heirs, and who want my personal cooperation (e.g., money) to access my unlawful inheritance, which I can then share with them. Note: They have sent this message to me because they have heard that I can be trusted -- probably as much as the rest of the persons on the 'undisclosed recipients' list of their email correspondence;
- A steaming, fly-laden manure mountain of open-ended, boring, questions like: "How Are You Going to Use Linked In to make 2010 Your Best Year Ever?" ... "Do you think that Blitter will make Twitter Obsolete?"
- "Five HOT Technology Stocks to Watch."
- "Personal Success Coach wants to show you how to become a winner overnight!";
- A veritable cesspool of stuff about branding, image-building, ranking, SEO, and other pop-culture or techo-fad acronym-laden stuff which someone thinks that I should be interested in.
Lastly, there are numerous items from various "Life Coaches" who do not, in fact, have lives of their own, "Success Coaches" who have yet to experience a single, credible success in achieving anything, and a host of other panderers who want to tell me things about having plenty of business cards handy, smiling, making eye contact, preparing a "one-minute commercial" for myself, and harnessing the power of The Law of Affinity.
This material (I've alluded to what the specific material actually is) is wasteful of my eyesight, my computer capacity of and my precious and fleeting time. When you waste my time, you insult me, you keep me from accomplishing other things, and you make me indifferent to you. You will have become a part of the increasing ambient background noise in a society where everyone is loudly hawking intangible, undefinable "stuff", and nobody is really buying any of it. I will not give you a second chance. Very few other people will either.
[By the way, this is not the time to utter something trite, like: "You only get one chance to make a first impression!" -- Don't speak in cliches and "conventional wisdom" -- Don't talk down to me, as if I were as stupid as my college transcript would indicate. I would like to think that you believe me to be intelligent...most people want to be thought of as intelligent, and to be treated as if they were].
You Ask (in a cynical, skeptical, perhaps even sarcastic tone, with your hands on your hips, or with your arms crossed over your chest) -- THEN WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU, DOUGLAS CASTLE?
I Respond (with a haughty attitude) -- You will listen to me because...
1. I will tell you important things that you don't already know, and which will improve your social, professional and financial success. Each will have an immediate, practical application. You will have actions to follow. Each will give you results.
2. I will engage you, and capture your attention and interest. I won't bore you with a trowelful of crap. I will offer you information and tools which you cannot find anywhere else.
3. I will be candid, and I won't patronize you. Ever.
4. I will occasionally make you laugh...either at me, at yourself, or at others. You will (despite yourself) enjoy what I write.
5. I will talk to you on a Human-to-Human basis.
Incidentally, if you want me to listen to you, here's what you should do:
1. Get my attention, in any way that you can --
2. Tell me something important and interesting ... speak with authority ... and put your unique personality into it ... make it about you and me ... if you are eccentric, it might actually help --
3. Give me an action or actions to take. I will await your command.
Here's a rule:
"If it's not interesting to you, it won't be interesting to your audience."
Tell me about what you know; what you are actually interested in; something which have a personal passion for. Don't be conventional. Conventional people never change anything, and they are boring as hell. Take your personality out of the moth balls (by the way, have you ever smelled moth balls?), brush it off and tell it, in no uncertain terms that it is your greatest personal asset. It is what separates you from the rest of the crowd.
Please stay tuned for my first real article, which should be coming up soon.
Thank you, one and all.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
*Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/douglascastle http://twitter.com/TNNW_BUZZWORKS
*Check me out: http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/douglascastle
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Saturday, June 27, 2009
THE REHUMANITIZATION OF NETWORKING - Why Should I Listen to You?
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The Emergence of The Relationship Economy
The Emergence of the Relationship Economy features TNNWC Founder, Adam J. Kovitz as a contributing author and contains some of his early work on The Laws of Relationship Capital. The book is available in hardcopy and e-book formats. With a forward written by Doc Searls (of Cluetrain Manifesto fame), it is considered a "must read" for anyone responsible for the strategic direction of their business. If you would like to purchase your own copy, please click the image above.
2 comments:
The things not often spoken about; those are the things Douglas writes about.
Be interesting. Don't just try to get attention by being louder and more in your face than the guy next to you. We are all so well trained (by necessity) to drown out that kind of noise. If you have value you will get noticed.
Dear Yossi:
Thank you so very much. You have touched precisely on my point. Why should I bother to write about things that everyone else writes about...I am predisposed, by my very nature, to saying (either orally or in print) the things that many people think about but are too frightened to speak of, or to admit to.
I want to 1) capture people's attention, 2) get them to read what I've written, and 3) force them to think, or perhaps even take action.
We live in a society that is as confused as it is conformed -- where we use the term "politically correct" to cover lies and denial. Thoughout history, no strides or advances have been made by pallid conformists, social automatons and bureauocrats.
Someone has to shake people awake. Perhaps that's my mission. Since I am not good at much else, it makes my career choice simple.
In friendship,
Douglas
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