Here It Is – New Years Eve 2010!
I have to admit, the past year had it’s challenges but I was surrounded by amazing people here in my community, and I can’t praise those enough on Twitter. Many of you know I’m a huge Twitter fan, mostly because that’s where I have had the most success in my business, and on a personal note. There isn’t anything really special to say about that, it happens to be the Social Network I leveraged. I could have used others but they just didn’t seem to fit my need for speed : )
Now I’m not one for making New Years Resolutions, you might find that odd coming from a Futurist but, I don’t actually predict the future. If I did, I would be in a different line of work. Alot is going to happen in 2011, the mobile movement is about to explode and cause business to shift yet once again. As I mention in my blog post I wrote back on May 28th, 2010, three things to watch for in 2013, is going to happen much sooner than indicators were showing when I wrote that bitty.
Social Media was on fire in 2008 and is still going to lead the way for the mobile marketplace in 2011, but it’s going to be a growing up phase for many businesses, specially the small business. I’ve said it before, I see dead businesses. The problem isn’t the technology, or the fact we as consumers are buying more and more online, the problem, is how we think! Most business owners think they know what to do in this new marketplace, and some do, but 90% don’t. If they did, there wouldn’t be as many dead businesses on the horizon. Start paying attention to Gen C, ask them what they think and what they want, you will be surprised.
Why will they die? They don’t understand what really has to happen in this Paradigm Shift. There are over a dozen shifts taking place and they are grossly misunderstood by the business community at large.I’m not going to go into details in this blog post but I will in next few weeks, today, I want to celebrate the year that passed and the year that is about to begin.
Social Media is not a Mouse Trap, it’s not meeting strangers, it’s not putting a band aid on a broken business – it’s a complete business reset!
I hope great things happen for you, I’m certain they will if you work smart and stay true to your passion. You will need people around you to help keep you on track, be humble enough to let others help you achieve your goals and dreams. If you do, everyone wins.
I look forward to sharing with you in 2011, and some of you I may get the privilege of working with you, regardless, Happy New Year! Please don’t drink and drive, and make sure you get home safe so you can reach your 2011 goals.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Merry Christmas From The Greaves Household
It’s Christmas Eve and we are about to enter into a time of Blessing and Family, not everyone has this luxury. We can however, adopt those less fortunate and make this time of year a time warmth & love. I charge you to Bless someone this Christmas, someone you don’t know.
This year is somewhat sombre for me, I have struggled more this year than ever with missing my Father, he left us Dec 11th, 1998, Cancer took what life had left. Christmas was his favorite time of year, he would go overboard with decorating the house, and he made sure we had at least 5 or 6 presents for each of three kids. My Father always made sure those around him felt encouraged and watched over, he always helped someone, and he always made sure Christmas was special for everyone.
You’ve read it here many times, and if you’ve heard me speak, you know my war cry:
How Many People Are Better Off Because You Lived?
I pray this message finds you well and that 2010 will be a great year for you & your family.
So, from the Greaves Household, Merry Christmas & may 2011 Be The Best Year Yet!
The Merry Christmas Economy!
Here we are yet once again, Christmas time. Why is it that we are all shocked by the fact it’s upon us and we just aren’t ready for it? If you’re one of those people, and you are a business owner, I ask you, how do you stay in business? I’m mean really, you are the one who is supposed to have the house in order, making sure all is on schedule, and then you say you’re not ready for Christmas?
Ya I know I’m ranting a bit, it sounds silly doesn’t it, but yet many of us do just that, some credibility is lost when you admit you aren’t ready for Christmas. It’s the same date every year, it happens only once per year, you know what it means, and you know what you are supposed to do, so what’s the problem.
Now I’m generalizing here but, we tend to spend our time & money on what we believe is important to us, not being ready for Christmas speaks volumes about how you value the world, how you value the people around you, and especially your immediate family.
Those in Social Media circles claim they love their followers and so on, we are all very nice to each other here, we lift one another up, we help for free alot, and we say things we don’t really believe. That’s the truth really, but we want to move forward and move ahead, and in the Future of Business you won’t be able to do that without people helping one another. We are moving into a Merry Christmas Economy!
In a Merry Christmas Economy we help one another, we don’t expect anything back, we just want to be a part of something larger than ourselves. We will share openly, we will click on Like buttons and Re-Tweet icons to show how much we value others and their businesses. We value relationships, we value the world differently, and we all have the same basic needs (in general), this new economy is open to anyone, it’s to good to be true, it’s awesome! You will need to make your brand / product or service like-able if it isn’t already, that’s how your business will be judged.
Gary Vaynerchuk has written about the Thank You Economy, is he talking about the same thing, he wants you to care, to care about those around you, and mean it. He not only wants you to say it, he wants you to actually do something about it. But will you, why all of a sudden now, why in this Social Media ERA is that so important?
It’s gut check time now, look deep into who you are, why you’re in business, why you in Social Networks, are you practicing, are you participating in business for others or yourself? If you are honest, others are secondary, but they shouldn’t be, they pay your bills, they provide the roof over your head. They will determine if your business is liked! But yet, we make it difficult for customers to deal with us, we make them jump through hoops to get our help, we make them work to hard to do business with us, why is that?
The Future of Business will be very different, being social is the osmosis of being connected, being connected means the world will decide what is good and what is bad, not slick marketing. This connectedness means we are on the move at all times, we are mobile in such a way your business will have trouble tracking and understanding the consumer, unless your values match with there’s.
The Merry Christmas Economy has an underlying problem, it has to solve the problem of an entitlement mentality. In The Future of Business, we must provide access over pay-walls, and find seamless ways of qualifying the consumer. When we get past the entitlement thinking, we will get to the heart of the matter, where people matter, make doing business with our brand, product or service virtually painless, only then will we have insight into the future of business. Dealing with your business has to be like breathing, no thinking, no obstructions, no walls, wide open hospitality, an experience they won’t forget, something they do through osmosis. Just like in the movie A Field Of Dreams, they will come and they won’t even know why. Is that your kind of business, one that participates in the Field of dreams, if you build it, they will come. It could be like that, but it will boil down to how you value others in a Merry Christmas Economy?
One Of My Goals For 2011
One of my goals for 2011 is to give you the opportunity to tell me what you want to learn here, specifically on The Future of Business / The Open & Free Business Model. So, for the purposes of my work, I want to provide content that you actually want to read and learn from, I will do my very best to research and post what I find. Keep in mind I am also a business, so if some research has a cost attached, I will end up charging for that research in some fashion. It could be a white paper, a webinar or workshop, but know I will recover the cost at some point.
My primary focus is The Future of Business / The Open & Free Business Model, although they appear separate, they are also one and the same. What questions do you have, what is it that confuses you about it, what are you struggling with in your business, maybe this model can provide a solution? Maybe you don’t know, that’s OK, I am also available for hire to work with your business.
You will find I try to practice what I preach, I’m open and transparent as much as I can be, I also give you the opportunity to embarrass me, but I know you won’t. One of the practices in The Future of Business, is being open and available, transparent and above all, care about your constituency, your followers, your readers and customers. I have great trust in you the reader / consumer, I believe in helping those who ask, and even those who don’t.
For the purposes of disclosure, I spend a great deal of time studying the work of many people, I read 200 – 300 articles a day and I still can’t keep up. Here is a short list, just to name a few, and I want you study them to:
1.) Gerd Leonhard – http://www.mediafuturist.com
2.) Glen Hiemstra – http://www.futurist.com
3.) Chris Brogan – http://www.chrisbrogan.com
4.) Olivier Blanchard – http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com
5.) Trey Pennington – http://www.treypennington.com
6.) Scott Stratten – http://www.un-marketing.com
7.) Louis Gray – http://www.louisgray.com
8.) Jeff Jarvis – http://www.buzzmachine.com
9.) Chris Anderson – http://www.thelongtail.com (Of Wired Magazine)
10.) Ross Dawson – http://rossdawson.com
So, Owengreaves.com has opened it’s doors for your input on what content or information you would like to aquire here, on the topic of: The Future of Business – The Open & Free Business Model
Feel free to send me an email with your request if you do not wish to leave a comment – E-Mail Me!
How Do I Get Your Attention?
Attention is a funny thing, kids are masters of getting as much as they need, but how do businesses master that same art without becoming annoying? Sometimes annoying works well for advertising campaigns, but do they win friends and influence people? Do they get your attention, or just your anger?
Some people, like me, can’t walk into a room quietly, we naturally draw attention to ourselves, probably because we are insecure or some other mental issue. I don’t know why it is, but it is. I love people, and I love helping them when I can, but that doesn’t get attention the way I would like it to. It might have something to do with my opening : )
I’m going to use me as the scape goat in this post, as an example of what some of us are dealing with. I hope it stirs some emothions in you and makes you think.
People and business are not the same, they have two different personalities and yet some of the same needs. When a person fills the role of business owner, they look at the world completely differently than when they are at home. OK maybe, but usually. The business owner, if they are doing well, tend to have healthy happy relationships with staff, and the staff reflect that out to those who are dealing with them. In a perfect world that’s probably very true, but not always the norm.
Every business has the same need, they want your attention, and those who figure out what gets your attention tend to survive longer. I’m generalizing, but you get the idea. So how does a business of one get your attention the same way a business / Brand or many people do? It still comes down to need doesn’t it. There has to be a need for me to look your way, and more importantly, a compelling need for me to find out more about what you are offering. Not all businesses need my services, they do, but don’t realize they do, why? Urgency. I may show you a tidal wave, but it’s not going to get here till 2014, I’ll wait and see mentality sets in, and well, you know what happens. So how do I get your attention?
I’m not a kid any longer, so I can’t get your attention the way kids do, and I can only cry wolf so many times before you take my work seriously, so what will it take? Why do most small business have a tougher time over bigger businesses? Probably because big businesses have more resources and can buy attention at a level small businesses or individuals can’t. It’s not a level playing field by those terms is it?
If it’s that hard now, what will it be like when another 3 – 4 billion people come online? If you haven’t noticed, we are moving away from the Bricks & Mortar style of consuming, we are buying more and more through our smart phones than ever before. That is going to increase, and it’s not going away as if it was a fad like Bell Bottom Blue Jeans.
My tag line should be, I SEE DEAD BUSINESSES! Why? Because most small businesses know the tidal wave is coming, if they don’t, they aren’t listening. It’s as if they are looking the other way, hoping it won’t actually happen. Fear is an immobilizing thing most of the time, but that doesn’t mean what I’m sharing isn’t real or going to happen.
You should be doing three things in your business right now, no matter what size it is, become social, become very mobile, and be prepared to serve a portion of the 4 billion people yet to come. So I ask you, how do I get your attention? The better question might be, forget about me, how do you get the the attention of 4 billion yet to come? Attention is the currency of our future, learn how to get it.