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Real Time

by Megan M. on December 28, 2011

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There’s something about real time that makes it extremely important to me.

I’ve thought about (and even tried) writing batches of posts, something I’m fully capable of doing. When I do it, my brain bursts with ideas… but that only continues for as long as I write a batch of posts, every day. When a few more days have passed, I lose interest in what I wrote several days ago and I want to write more now; the value in the writing is in the right-now sharing, the reactions inside this 48 hours, the interactions that result. If I have a post queued up for every single day between now and the end of January, I feel let down that I don’t have something to write right now and post right now, for each of those days that is already filled. I miss the real time experience of having that conversation with the audience.

For some reason, I don’t feel this way about recorded music; I feel connected to the future audience when I make the recording. When it’s music, it somehow becomes timeless. It’s a conversation without words, and it lasts forever. But I do feel this way about recorded monologues and dialogues. That conversation feels most important right now, even if the value of the conversation goes on forever… for me, if I don’t experience the conversation now, I lose the real time value.

When I work with someone or help them with something, there’s a big emotional benefit (at least to me) in doing it real time, on the phone or (even better) on video chat. We can do it through email and that’s fine — and enjoyable, and engaging, and productive. But it’s much better with voices and moving pictures. And of  course, nothing trumps being in-person. Emails can lag; email threads are more easily interrupted. The boost and focus that come from a real time conversation is much stronger, even if the work itself isn’t contained solely in that real time conversation.

Have you ever felt this way? Is it different for you?

Photo credit: VaXzine

What fuels you?

by Megan M. on December 27, 2011

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The thing that fuels me is interacting with and helping people, real time.

For some reason, this is easy to forget! Not all projects involve a great deal of human interaction, and I honestly don’t think I realized before how important it was for me to reconnect on a regular basis to something moving, breathing & human. I found some clarity on this when I told Larah that I needed a pickmeup, and it didn’t have to be a specific kind of work or brainstorming… all I needed was the conversation. I needed to ask questions and answer them. I needed the exchange of entrepreneurial energy.

This is why it is sometimes so energizing for me to just help someone else, even if I’m not getting any help with what I perceive is my problem… because the real time interaction and the questions and the solving all fuel me. There’s something about that activity, working with someone, that engages and lights up all the parts of my brain. And when I get off the phone, I have Important Things To Do.

And I do them, instead of making vague productive noises and checking my email again.

Is there something specific that fuels you? Something intuitive (or not) that makes everything suddenly… click?

Photo credit: Neil Armstrong2

Trust Agents

by Megan M. on November 22, 2011

If you’re interested in community engagement, connection-making and marketing for real people, Trust Agents is a must-read.

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I admit it: We were late to the game reading Trust Agents, which is downright shameful because it’s such a useful, insightful book. If you look at Connectors and wonder how the hell they do what they do — and if you want to be successful in online business? Uh, yeah. Pick this one up.

I was discussing it with Bob Poole, because he’s one of my greatest Connectors — and he taught me a lot about human artistry in marketing before I even came across the term. Bob wrote a little book called Listen First – Sell Later, and even he said that Trust Agents reconfirmed for him that trust is the most important human emotion necessary for success in selling. Bob is all about asking questions and actively listening, and this is real trust agent mojo.

What Chris and Julien have put together in Trust Agents is the first thing you should pick up if you want to understand how people connection works on the internet. How do you build an audience? How do you get them paying attention? Networking, business, social media, this is where you should start.

I doubt there’s a better primer on community marketing anywhere.

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