Daniel and I are backcountry hiking 12km into Algonquin Park and staying there for a week. It is our own little retreat from the world.
I’ll still be publishing while I am away… but I’ll tell you now that it won’t be me “live”.
Be well.
Do you ever say ‘we’ when you are really just an ‘I’? Does your marketing portray a company much larger? Why are you acting bigger than you are?
You worry that people won’t take you seriously if you show how small you truly are… but you’re wrong. The old rules of business emphasized size over substance… but the web has changed that. The internet has brought business full-circle and the foundations of commerce are once again about the craft and the connection between buyer and seller.
The web embraces authentic human voice, so don’t be afraid to simply be you… be afraid if you are anything but.
After all, you can’t name companies that you’ve built great realtionships with but I’m sure you can name people.
It sounded too cool to be true. In around 20 min or so I can realize my true life purpose. All I have to do is sit down and write it out. This is according to Lifehacker who is quoting blogger Steve Pavlina.
Blogger Steve Pavlina says that you can discover your life’s purpose in as little as twenty minutes. To do so, complete the following four steps:
1. Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type.
2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.
Steve writes that “usually it takes 15-20 minutes to clear your head of all the clutter and the social conditioning about what you think your purpose in life is” and that you should expect to generate some repeats or similar answers. All this is fine so long as you keep on writing, even if your answers begin to resemble variations on “I don’t have a purpose” or “Life is meaningless”.
Also, it’s not enough to react emotionally to an answer, according to Pavlina. You need to keep going until the emotion brings forth tears. If you feel the urge to quit, take a two minute break and then resume. According to the post, around 80-90 percent of those who try this method will reach their answer in less than an hour.
What is my true purpose in life?
Does it not work? Or did I not try hard enough?
photo credit: wwarby
I watched the video of my first speech on innerpreneurs only once. It’s all I could bear. All I heard were the umms… that seemed to follow my every sentence. In the moment, I felt calm but upon watching the video it is clear that I am anything but.
What is it that those umms… mean to me? Am I using them as a tool to help me think of my next thought? Or is it because I was afraid of silence?
Two days ago, after doing my best to tame my very vocal inner critic, I vowed to my husband that I would try to be conscious of my every word and my every umm… in an effort to not say it any more.
I forgot about this vow yesterday and I’m sure I said umm… many times over. Today, however, I am back in the anti-Umm… game.
Wish me luck and if you have any advice for removing umm… from your vocabulary, I’d love to hear it.
photo credit: bradleygee
Commerce is a natural part of human life but over time it has become increasingly unnatural. As commerce advanced, it was determined that being human was a detriment to business. Business-as-usual became the isolation of an enterprise from its very foundation and lifeblood, its workers and customers. Humans became demographics to be talked at, not with.
Business forgot that markets are conversations between humans.
Mass. What a concept. It’s the great antithesis to the values of a Cultural Creative. Mass encourages conformity, homogeneity, rules, protection and mindless action.
Mass production. Mass marketing. Mass media. Make it cheap and make it generic. Make it for everyone.
If you’ve been paying close attention, you may have noticed that Mass isn’t what it used to be.
Our voices are shaped by what we do – our craft – as it is what we most like to talk about. On the web we can meet and talk globally with others who value our passion, our talent, our business.
The internet changed Mass forever. It provided an easy way for humans to globally express their own ideas and creativity. Our voice, our Self, as a digital representation. Our unique Self communicated through programming code that is visual poetry.
The internet shattered the ideals of Mass as it was evident through our many web expressions that we, as humans, were anything but all the same. As more of us come online more of us are connecting with the soul of business, the craftsmanship that once went into the products and services we purchase. We once again have the ability to communicate with the creators, with the people and personalities behind the things we buy.
The ability to connect with a human voice is a million times more effective than any television ad. And that reality is changing the way we buy and sell.
The internet is a giant bazaar where producers and markets can interact and respond directly with each other. Just like the marketplace used to be the heart of a town, the internet has become the heart of commerce. For it is here that we can now go to look, listen and marvel, to buy and be amused. Most importantly, it is here that we can go to meet each other and talk — about the things that matter to us personally.
Connecting as humans, not enterprises, using substantive, personalized communications, has blurred the line between business and personal. It is no longer about what you would like people to believe, it’s about what is really going on. It’s about being authentic and being human. It’s about enjoying your work, being yourself and the market that will arise because of it. It’s about business-as-unusual.
photo credit: whistler1984
Available Now!