Day 4 30DC - What Web 2.0 Means for Business

In today's podcast Ed talked about what Web 2.0 means for business. It was related to his comments on the feedback he received about his personal style in the videos. Some people were wondering why he doesn't do a slick edit of the videos and instead serves up his genuine character, complete with pauses, ums, and the occasional interruption.

I've known the reason since doing my presentation on Podcasting and Vidcasting at the STC Conference over a year ago. I knew Ed would get around to telling the rest of the 30DC participants why such "casual" video is so important, and today he did. It all ties in with Web 2.0 and what you need to know to be successful in today's changing marketplace.

The key idea here is RAPPORT. Seeing these videos, we are getting to know the real Ed Dale. He is not perfect, he makes mistakes, he gets sidetracked. We see that on the videos. But we also clearly see that he knows what he's talking about as he shares his techniques; we see him speak from his heart about his topics, and we can tell he cares. He makes a connection with his audience.

After seeing an Ed Dale video, you get a good sense of who he is and what he's about. That is very important when you have to decide whether to take his advice, buy his product, learn his techniques, or support his efforts.

Web 2.0 is all about connection and community. In a global marketplace, the way to connect with your customers more powerfully than through an e-mail or web page, is with video (and audio). Today's markets are so competitive, and so spread out, that you can't hope to reach all of your potential customers unless you market the way the Web now works. That means getting referrals from other people -- through Digg, StumbleUpon! and other tools. That means having your customers spread the word about your product, service or company through YouTube, Blogs, and other viral means.

You can't get away with poor customer service anymore, because a dissatisfied customer can now broadcast to the world what they think of your business. Conversely, and more importantly, a happy customer can quickly spread the news about how impressed they have been. When people "let their fingers do the walking" to check out a business or product on the web before making any purchase, having positive ratings, reviews, and recommendations make a great deal of difference. A good problem to have is needing to upgrade your server because it has too much traffic.

We used to talk about High Tech also needing High Touch -- meaning that as we are distanced from each other by technology, we have to find some way of reconnecting with people, our customers, to be able to carry on business. Web 2.0 tools allow us to do just that, and video is a powerful way to build rapport with your market.
Outstanding marketing lessons are coming out of the Thirty Day Challenge. And a lot of fun as well. Thanks to a tip from a fellow participant, I have now been Simpsonized!

Day 3 30DC - Let Go and Let Ed

There will be many classic phrases, actions, and images to come out of what is now becoming a massive worldwide training opportunity. But perhaps the most memorable has already surfaced.

In a post entitled "The Tao of Ed" in the Thirty Day Challenge forums, PaulS reminds all the participants that it's best to relax and follow Ed's instructions to the letter, rather than jumping ahead, trying to take shortcuts, or getting caught up in customizing the process. He reminds us that doing things Ed's "Way" will be more likely to lead us to the success we are trying to achieve. We are reminded of Mr. Myagi saying "Wax on, wax off" to The Karate Kid.

And PaulS borrows a phrase from the self help movement to put it into perspective: "Let go and let Ed."

When you are studying with a guru, it makes sense to model exactly what they are doing until you understand that one specific way to do things. After you have assimilated the proven system, you can start adapting it to your own talents and interests. But first comes obedience to the teachings of the master.


Don't analyze, don't criticize, and above all don't get hung up on "progress". The progress will come as you follow the steps, one by one, in the order in which they're taught. All will become clear as you turn the teachings into practical actions that will take you to your goal. Wax on, wax off. Let go and let Ed.

$10.00 is not that far away.

Day 2 30DC - Getting Ideas

You don't have to be a creative genius to get ideas. You just have to do a little bit of research and get your brain thinking along lines of idea generation. Ed's training videos and podcasts today showed a number of places online to scan for ideas. What we're looking for are topics that people are interested in and searching for information on. More importantly, we're looking for things that people are passionate about. If no one cares about your topic area or niche, how can you be successful doing business in it?

This first exercise is really just brainstorming -- searching for idea starters and then jotting them down without editing or evaluation until you get as long a list as you can manage.

Care and Feeding of Ideas
To spark ideas, for whatever it is you need them, it is important to tell both your conscious and your subconscious that you need ideas. As you take steps, consciously, to generate ideas by doing research or "sitting for ideas" which is just being still and pondering your topic, your brain begins to work at coming up with ideas that would be suitable. To get the subconscious mind on board (and this is the one you really need for idea generation), as an idea comes into your mind you need to acknowledge that idea by writing it down.

Acknowledging the idea validates the actions your brain has taken and rewards it for a fruitful search (doesn't matter at this point whether it's a "good" idea, just that an idea has occurred). With that encouragement, your mind begins to look for more ideas, to get more encouragement and acknowledgment. Thus the floodgates begin to open so ideas can stream through.

If you get an idea and you dismiss it, or you fail to write it down, it will go away. The next idea will be more difficult to generate, and if you ignore your ideas long enough, you won't get any new ones.

If your business or academic career depends on the generation of new ideas, don't go anywhere without a notebook and writing instrument to keep track of ideas that come to you. I have a tiny voice recorder that I use while driving because I often get ideas in traffic. (There's a reason for this that I'll explain in a subsequent post, but it has to do with the Theta brain state.)

We've all had that experience of having a great idea, an awesome idea, a million-dollar idea, and then forgetting it a short time afterward. Because we didn't write it down. Take my advice, never be without a means of capturing your ideas, and iif it should happen that the great idea occurs to you while you are completely unarmed for making note of it, figure out some mnemonic that might help you remember it. A rhyme, a string around your finger, a specific phrase. Then jot it down at the first opportunity.

All you need is one good idea to make your fortune.

Day 1 - Thirty Day Challenge Launches!

Can you believe it? More than 8,000 people have registered to participate in the 30 Day Challenge put on by Ed Dale, Dan Raine, and Nic Messe. That's pretty amazing. When was the last time 8,000 people signed up for something you were doing?

The much-anticipated launch, heralded by a couple of weeks of pre-season A/V mastery, stuttered a bit as much of the 30DC community were stymied by the .mp4 version of the first training video. All along, the organizers had been providing both streamed video and .mp4 versions as particpants were getting up to speed with iTunes, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 social media they had never before encountered. I realize the server demands for streamed video with 8,000+ hungry challengers all trying to access it at once would cause a performance hit, but dropping off the easy-to-use video (basically, just click and play) on day 1 was a bit of a shock to many. The forums lit up with calls for help and echoes of frustration. Too bad. The guys did see this coming, but dropped the ball a little in execution on the first day. Some explanation needed to be provided, or at least some warning. I say this because it's what I'm always advising my clients -- make life easy for the users, even if you think it is already easy. That's what we techwriters do -- anticipate user problems so solutions can be provided ahead of time.

The huge number of newly-initiated users may have been underestimated. As mentioned, challenge participants include people on dialup and those who have only ever used the default tools installed with Windows. Throwing Skype, Twitter, Firefox extensions, Facebook, and iTunes .mp4s at them all within hours of each other caused information overload and technical overload to boot.

I'm sensitized to user frustrations because of my job, so I see all the people running into walls. And I see walls people haven't hit yet. I also see the gaps.

But when you think about it, a little frustration is a teensie, weensie price to pay for the awesome value being provided -- FOR FREE -- in this training the lads are giving. Nothing comes without a cost. Learning, for sure, doesn't come without effort, sometimes pain, and yes, plenty of frustration. On the Scale of Value, the flea on one side is easily outweighed by the elephant on the other. No contest.

In today's broadcast alone, Ed gave the marketer's 4-part formula for success, and if you learn only that, you will improve your business efforts immensely. Register for the Thirty Day Challenge to get access to all of the valuable training.

Speed of Light vs. Speed of Sound

A few of the 30DC challengers tell us they are still on dialup. When my students admit that, I tell them, "People! Get into the 21st century!". For my students, and clients, being on high speed broadband is a necessity, for their studies and to conduct business.

For my 30DC friends in that situation, however, such a statement is unfair. There are still parts of the world where bandwidth is at a premium. We're not talking Third World here either. These are neighborhoods that have had running water, indoor plumbing, and fire for quite a long time, thank you very much. What they haven't had are enlightened community leadership and adequate funding for infrastructure. Neo-Luddite thinking has hobbled communities that are most in need of access to information outside their local boundaries.

With fibre optics and satellite technology the technorati are operating at the speed of light. Anyone still on dialup is waiting for the beep beep beep, rushahh, rushahh, squeal, boing, boing of a modem laboriously connecting to a much-constricted electronic pipeline. The speed of sound never felt so slow.

The good news is that today's web tools can accommodate downloading files overnight, and working offline with e-mail. Still, the Digital Divide persists.

Choose which side of that chasm you want to be on.

BTW, I used to work at a switchboard very much like that. I told you I was old.

What does Facebook have to do with Business?

We have been talking about Facebook, Digg and Del.icio.us, among other tools, in the Thirty Day Challenge. It occurred to me today, that these are the Web 2.0 equivalent of the business networking we used to do when we went to networking meetings at the Chamber of Commerce.

You young'uns have just digitized what we old fogies did in person. And of course, now that we have a global marketplace and a 24/7 information overload always-on environment, it makes sense to use these tools to conduct that aspect of business. Of course, they are great for your lifestyle applications too!

Getting an endorsement from someone else for your business was always extremely valuable. Now, in Web 2.0 style, you get a thumbs up or a 5-star rating from people anywhere in the world who thought your stuff has merit.

I almost hate to see those dots connected. Many business colleagues were flummoxed by Facebook and MySpace. That kept the competition out and we early adopters in. Trust the juggernaut that is internet marketing to find a way to almost spoil it in the process (to wit: many fake MySpace pages). But the pendulum has only begun to swing.



Legitimate marketers and business people are using the same leverage, with the same social media tools, to create authentic business opportunities and get that first dollar (or ten) while doing a lot of good in the process.

I haven't even begun to tap the potential of some of these tools, but by working through the material in the Thirty Day Challenge, I'm getting new ideas for how they could be used to help my students and clients immensely. The next month is going to be very exciting!