New Learning

The Internet has changed the nature of learning. Pre-Internet, the chore was finding facts and then assembling them, an additive process.

Now,we have more facts than we can use, and the game is to subtract the dross to get to what works.

In a similar vein – This month we’ve seen several guys who had been working longer hours for less effect and finally, when they get let go or their organization implodes, they don’t know anyone who can help them. Toby Keith’s I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then... Heartfelt but ineffectual.

A year ago I had a mole my wife didn’t like, so I asked my doc. He said go see a dermo. Took 6 months to see the dermo he recommended. Nobody in her organization wanted to make it easy.

When we finally met, she was too busy with her nitrogen bottle to look at my mole.

Eventually, I went back to my doc and chastised him. He said I should probably go see his personal dermo, not the one the government “recommended” he should recommend.

Two days later, the new dermo says, yup, it’s coming off, pucker up.

Four days after that, yup it was hot, can you get back in here today so we can finish it?

I’m into life, liberty and the pursuit, so heck yes.

Now besides the fact that the 2^nd dermo is actually practicing medicine which includes sudden service, I noticed that the staff was on time, smiling, and spoke up, saying good morning, and how are you with real interest. I like to play that game. It’s an indicator of competence.

I have a friend, an engineer, who retained a lawyer to get him a patent. Mid way through, the lawyer decided to rethink his compensation, and stopped work. It’s now been five years and he keeps sending statements adding interest to the work he never did, which is now useless.

I accept neither a lawyer or an engineer has adequate social skills. I was thinking too bad their wives didn’t know each other. Then this never would have happened.

The new learning is how to pick a winner. Certification means very little.

My key questions are who have I worked with successfully before, and then who do I know who has worked with someone successfully before? If I can’t answer those questions, I figure I don’t have the expertise to make a good choice.

Knowing that, I try to follow Will Rogers advice, “The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket.”

Sales Lab Resources – How-to’s you can use.

Beginning At The Beginning

The doc was sewing me up when she said, “I’d like to do social media, but there is just too much with Facebook and Twitter and all those other things. I don’t know where to start.”

My first thought was she should pay attention, I didn’t want to look like a football, but she’s a real seamstress, and I figured she was either taking my mind off my situation, or she was really thinking about getting started. Either is good.

Where should someone start with social media?

I think the start should be a blog. A blog creates a mostly permanent home for your writing, a base. 

I choose Blogger, because it has required no maintenance during the last four years, yet I’ve upgraded features all by myself, any time I can get a concept. The tough part is figuring something worth changing, not the actual doing.

If you have a domain, your blog can be part of it. If you want a free independent domain, that’s easy too.

Then begins the twin tasks of how to create more posts and how to get more readers. The good news is six posts is a mature blog, and one more reader than last week is a success.

After you have a blog post that you like, it turns out there are any number or places where they are looking for content. I call that “syndication.” Most of the groups I belong to have web properties that need copy. I keep a list handy to figure out who should get what. A typically post I write is read by over 200,000 people.

Last month I attended a fabulous event, and a friend in the audience said, “You should write something about that and post it on your LinkedIn group!”

I said, “Which LinkedIn group?”

She said, “Your LinkedIn group!” So I guess I have a LinkedIn group. Cool! 

I've noticed that people feel a relationship from reading and cheering for you over time. That's how I feel about the several dozen thinkers I've got attending to my education. 

I figure I don’t want to read me more than twice a week, so why should anyone else? Also I’ve got other things to do. Finally, it’s hard to find things that I care to write about.

Being out and amongst increases the number of posts I write. 

I figure being able to easily publish and influence society has been a dream for hundreds of years. It’’s just too good an opportunity to waste.

Tips 4 The Big Chair – Perspective 2.0