Oftentimes in life, we have these little moments of real time to ourselves, where there’s nothing but silence to keep us company.
In today’s always on, ever connected world, these moments in time become ever rarer, and we have to grab them while they’re here.
[Read more…] about What We Want Versus What We NeedTo build an empire takes more than one person.?It doesn?t matter if you?re a solo entrepreneur, a solo blogger, a solo musician or artist.
To truly build an empire takes more than the soloist you may be ? it takes a team.
From a solo point of view, that can mean a variety of things.
For solo entrepreneurs, it?s your partner that encourages you when no-one else will. Or the bank manager who approves your loan when you first start. Or the contractor who gives you the part-time skills for that job you couldn?t do otherwise.
For solo bloggers, it?s your readers who give you strength to keep writing when you want to give up. Or commenters that validate your thoughts. Or the social community who share your blog with new eyes.
For the musician or artist, it?s the fans who buy your work when everyone else says it?s worthless. It?s the manager or agent who never gives up on you. It?s the supplier that provides your tools of the trade to make the magic happen.
For the business owner or leader that has employees, your team is easier to define ? as is the fact that, just like the soloist, your team is everything. Without them, you have nothing.
Recognize that. Nurture them. Encourage them. Give them permission to err and give them the stepping stones to the right path the next time. But most of all, make sure they feel appreciated.
We can do a lot on our own ? but with our teams beside us we can conquer the world.
Want success? Make it about the team. Always.
We like to be entertained.
We enjoy storytellers that can transplant us into fantastical realms and take our imaginations on rides that we?d never usually imagine.
We like touchpoints.
We feel more in tune with those that directly reach out to us and hold our hands; guide us; share their experience and involvement with something, and make us feel that we?re the only people that they?re talking to at that given time.
Simply put, we enjoy being?part of the experience.
The best storytellers are that because their audience is enveloped by the words from the pen or the lips of the person telling the story.
The best touchpoints are the ones that leave us with a lasting impression long after the initial touch has happened.
[clickToTweet tweet=”The best #storytellers connect what is and what can be.” quote=”The best storytellers connect what is and what can be.”]
You need to be the storyteller. The touchpoint. The connection between what is and what can be.
This can be for your business, your blog, your online or offline persona ? in other words,?you.
So how do you become the experience everyone wants to be part of?
Our time is busy ? you need to offer us a reason to take part in whatever your experience is offering. We need to feel that there?s benefit or relevance ? otherwise, is there any point in checking out your experience to start with?
Some areas to consider:
Once you?ve created the experience, your job is only just beginning. But then that?s all part of good storytelling ? raise the interest then keep it going.
Create the experience. Tell a story around it. Draw in the crowd with a warm welcome.
Look after the?before, during and after.
Ask readers of your story and visitors to your touchpoints what they enjoyed, and how they?d like to see the tale(s) progress.
Feedback can turn into payback ? don?t lose that impetus.
We want to be entertained, but we want to be entertained honestly and feel that you mean it.
You can do that, can?t you?
Recently, I was chatting with some friends about blogging, and how it’s changed over the years.
From social media to richer forms of content creation like videos, podcasts, story-driven blogging, etc, it could be forgiven to think that blogging as we know it (writing a post, publishing, hoping others read it either on the page or vie email/RSS) is about to disappear.
One of the reasons that came up was the fact there was so much mediocre blogging on the web. And, to a point, this is true.
With so much emphasis placed on eyeballs and clicks, quality can often be forgotten or eschewed for some other metric.
It led to a nice discussion on what was really important when it came to blogging.
One of my friends mentioned that the most important part of a blog post was the headline. I countered that?the headline didn?t matter if the content sucked, while my second friend’s take was a killer headline can help guide the post.
This then led to the question of the post itself.
I mentioned that it?s not always possible to post killer content every single post, as much as we try to as bloggers looking after our readers. My second friend asked?if the reader learns, then isn?t that killer?
I responded yes, which means that in that respect even mediocre can be killer.
This turned into a great follow-up discussion about whether you should post at all if your writing is just mediocre, with my second friend suggesting that instead of regular posts, only publish when and if you?re going to knock it out the park every time.
I don?t disagree with him that mediocre posts shouldn?t be published (it?s why I used to have about 25 posts always in draft mode, waiting on some tinkering with content).
Where I do differ is that it?s down to interpretation.
As a blogger, I go out of my way to try and make sure that whatever I publish has both relevance and information that will help my readers. I?m pretty sure every single blogger out there is the same.
Yet the relevance and ?brilliance?, if you like, is down to the reader.
Say I write what I think is a killer post about social media monitoring tools.
To some readers, it could be the greatest thing since sliced bread. To others, it could be, ?Meh, I know this, this post has no value to me. Next.?
To that person, the post is mediocre because of the information (or lack of) inside the post. Yet to the reader who never knew this information, the post may be killer because it?s opened their eyes to something they never knew.
As I mentioned to both friends, no-one sets out to deliberately write a mediocre post ? but sometimes some posts will always be better than others, that?s just natural.
The point is to be happy that what you wrote doesn?t short-change you or? your readers. Unless you have that confidence, don?t publish.
Thoughts?
We have a limited time in life to do the things we want to do.
Let’s make sure it’s doing the things that matter with the people that matter.
