I’m old fashioned, so I still read books, the old…paper kind. People in my industry keep saying books are done, books are last century. I don’t buy that theory. I only see books going one of two ways: They’ll either be around forever, or they’ll at least be around for a very very long time to come. Either way, I’m keeping mine! I rarely travel without a book in hand, even if that travel is just into the city for a business meeting. When I deliver seminars I always have books in my hand, I think it’s effective to inspire people to learn.

I’ve also made a list of 65 eBooks which I have collected over the the past few years. I think they’re good, and they’re worth looking over when you have a chance. Very large eBooks I print – I simply cannot read on a screen for very long. Smaller ones I read on my laptop, but I have them on Dropbox, so they’re accessible on my iPhone from anywhere. So standing in a queue, waiting for someone, etc is never a problem for me – there’s always some reading to be done. You can grab them here: http://www.jayz.co.za/ebooks/.

Happy reading!

I’m not always out of balance, sometimes I get some good balance. But those times are too few and far between. This morning I posted a message to Facebook and Twitter. Here is the Facebook version:

The sea turtle pictured here is called the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. Beautiful!

My first time learning about this creature was on a tv documentary. They showed how the eggs are laid in the sand, on the ocean’s shore. Wikipedia states that:

The mature nesting female hauls herself onto the beach and finds suitable sand on which to create a nest. Using her hind flippers, she digs a circular hole 40 to 50 centimetres (16 to 20 in) deep. After the hole is dug, the female then starts filling the nest with a clutch of soft-shelled eggs one by one until she has deposited around 50 to 200 eggs, depending on the species. Some species have been reported to lay 250 eggs, such as the hawksbill. After laying, she re-fills the nest with sand, re-sculpting and smoothing the surface until it is relatively undetectable visually. The whole process takes thirty to sixty minutes. She then returns to the ocean, leaving the eggs untended.

Now this is not a simple process. Due to the physical design of the sea turtle, movement out of the water is not very fast. It sort of crawls to move forward, and digging the hole to lay the female’s eggs is also a slow process.

After all this effort, the mother returns to the ocean, not knowing how many of the eggs will survive. And it has been statistically proven that only a very small proportion of each hatch – usually .01% – succeed.

God has designed nature and the universe with perfection – we all agree on that. But if we had to apply this type of process to business, it would be akin to shooting in the dark.

I think that is what advertising is, particularly big spend advertising like billboards. Advertising is shooting in the dark. It’s like dumping a whole lot of money in a hole, and expecting about .01% success. And if you have the opinion that advertising for branding is a smart thing – its not. And Chet Holmes will agree with me on that.

How do you know how many people viewed that billboard? How do you know how many people purchased your product due to that billboard? Measurement = impossible.

Did you know that $220 billion is spent on unmeasured advertising every year – in the US alone?

There’s a saying that advertising is the price you pay for not being remarkable. I’m sure you’re remarkable. We all are. Or more accurately, we all can be remarkable – but it takes some work. Advertising is the easy way out.

I’ll leave you with words by Seth Godin on this topic: “Do you want to bet your future on a process [that of advertising] that’s getting less effective every day?”

Photo credit: Wikipedia

She’s referring to Terry’s earlier comment that in his hotel someone is always watching, referring to the surveillance cameras everywhere. At this juncture of the movie, Tess has just witnessed Terry – via one of his own cameras – saying something which ended their relationship.

The Internet is moving to that level. Someone is always watching. Someone is always ready to write a blog post, or to tweet, or to update their Facebook status. Mobile phones make photo and video sharing child’s play.

Now, more than ever, it’s important to act and speak with integrity and good character at all times. We should be true to this standard of ethics even if no one is watching, of course. That is the ultimate model to strive for.

Gary Vaynerchuk was prank called at SxSW a few days ago. I think Gary’s a great guy, and I think his videos are brilliant. Someone called Gary in his hotel room, at 5am in the morning. Gary did not know it was a prank caller, and Gary did not know that the caller was video recording everything. Gary did, however, act with integrity and not lose his temper.

Watch the video…

Photo credit: ell-r-brown

Facebook and Twitter (and some other websites) reveal who we truly are. Sometimes we try to put up a facade (the Personality Ethic), but sooner or later the real you (the Character Ethic) is revealed.

If you want, you can go and read the entire post, but I want to repeat just a few lines from Covey which is in that post.

He says:

Many people with secondary greatness – that is, social recognition for their talents – lack primary greatness or goodness in their character. Sooner or later, you’ll see this is every long term relationship they have, whether it is with a business associate, a spouse, a friend, or a teenage child going through an identity crisis. It is character that communicates most eloquently. As Emerson once put it, “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.”

I truly believe that people’s characters are revealed online. Sometimes that may be good, other times not, but it happens nonetheless. Now this has been proven…

A recent study was conducted to ascertain whether people are their true selves online, or if it’s all just idealism. The study disproves a widely held assumption that online profiles are used to create idealistic images of ourselves. Participants for the study included 236 Facebook users – 133 from the United States, and 103 from Germany. Participants ranged from 17 to 22 years of age.

I’ve always maintained that Facebook and other websites are not popular because of fancy technology and fancy websites. No. It’s because Web 2.0 principles are in alignment with human principles. Trust, sharing, transparency, etc – these principles are what make the Internet work today. The study says, “OSNs [on-line social networking sites] might be an efficient medium for expressing and communicating real personality, which may help explain their popularity.”

Furthermore, it explains:

Our results were consistent with the extended real-life hypothesis and contrary to the idealized virtual-identity hypothesis. Observer accuracy was found, but there was no evidence of self-idealization, and ideal-self ratings did not predict observer impressions above and beyond actual personality. In contrast, even when controlling for ideal-self ratings, the effect of actual personality on OSN impressions remained significant for nearly all analyses. Accuracy was strongest for extraversion (paralleling results from face-to-face encounters) and openness (similar to research on personal environments). These results suggest that people are not using their OSN profiles to promote an idealized virtual identity.

This is just the beginning of this type of research (and this fact excites me!). More in-depth research is planned, and explained as follows:

Our findings represent a first look at the accuracy of people’s self-portrayals on OSNs. To clarify the processes and moderating factors involved, future research should investigate (a) older users and other OSNs, (b) other personality traits, (c) other forms of impression management, (d) the role of specific profile components (e.g., photos, preferences), and (e) individual differences among targets (e.g., self-monitoring) and observers (e.g., OSN experience).

I hope this post intrigues you as much as it intrigues me. You can find the complete details of the study here.

Photo credit: massimobarbieri

Some people think that content – all content – should be free from start to end. This includes people providing content, as well as those consuming that content. I think that’s ridiculous. A lot of content should be provided for free, as is the case currently, but with all types of media and content moving online, it’s inevitable that premium and selected content pieces should carry a price tag, even if only a nominal one.

This discussion has been becoming more and more frequent, because it’s becoming more and more important – for all concerned.

Mitch says:

Free is great, but at a certain point that well runs dry. People are willing to pay for things like access, unique content, premiums, artefacts, etc… Creating platforms that add value to a community is worthwhile (and worth the cost). No one ever said that everything in Social Media has to be free… and even free has a cost associated to it.

I totally agree with this. In fact, let me share the comment I posted on Mitch’s blog post:

I agree that money should be made online. I particularly favour the Freemium model. I plan to apply this to my seminars and webinars, as well as online content. Right now what I give for free, which I see as sharing and adding value, is totally separate to the things I charge for. I need to change that.

I like what Andrew Warner has done with his interviews on Mixergy.com. First all his video interviews were free (and they’re about an hour long each). A few days ago I discovered that interviews are now only free to view for a week. Anything older than a week can only be viewed under a paying membership. I like that model. It allows people who don’t want to pay 1 week to view all the videos, and it allows serious visitors the opportunity to pay for content to view and browse at leisure.

What do you think? Are you prepared to pay from premium online content?

Photo credit: stevendepolo

Mr Miyagi says in the movie: “First learn stand, then learn fly. Nature rule, Daniel-san, not mine.” This is very important. In business (and in life, even) we sometimes put the horse before the cart. We don’t adhere to due process principles. We’re too impatient. Mr Miyagi’s anecdote is similar to Covey‘s “Law of the harvest.” You reap what you sow.

Chet Holmes has worked with over 60 of the Fortune 500 companies as America’s top marketing executive, trainer, strategic consultant and motivation expert. He’s done work for Charlie Munger (one of Warren Buffet‘s partners), and has recently also started to do projects with Anthony Robbins. He has also studied and taught karate for 23 years.

Chet says:

The lessons we’ve learned about consistency have taught us that it is the only way to really improve anything. The secret to great accomplishment in karate is not in learning 4, 000 different moves. There’s aren’t 4, 000 different moves in karate. There are 12 moves. Becoming a master is not about doing 4, 000 different moves; it’s about doing 12 moves, 4, 000 times each. The same is true for all areas of accomplishment. Golf, tennis, sales, customer services, ALL areas of competency require repetition of fundamentals.

We need to apply this discipline to our businesses when it comes to Social Media. There are just too many tools and applications out there. And we cannot use all of them. Everyday we see people on Facebook and Twitter saying “try this new tool, this that new tool” – and for the average entrepreneur this is just as a liability on time. For most businesses, Social Media is a tool, it’s not their business. Social Media is our business – and more than just a tool – but I’m talking about those outside of this industry.

One Social Media tool is not enough though. Facebook alone is not enough. Twitter alone is not enough. LinkedIn alone is not enough. There must be a decent mix of online tools – a mix that’s right for your business. Not every business is the same. Once you’re identified the mix that suits your business, you have to be consistent in using those tools. Using a tool once every two weeks won’t result in any true value. Once per week is also too minimal. A few times per week is required, and with tools like Twitter, daily activity is required. This all might sound very time consuming, but it does not have to be. There are tools that can help you manage your online activity.

For example, here is how I use TweetDeck and HootSuite.

TweedDeck is essentially a Twitter tool, but I use it for more than that. I use it…

1. To track the people I’m following on Twitter and respond to them
2. To conduct multiple concurrent Twitter searches (for research and tracking purposes)
3. To track and respond to Facebook status updates
4. To track and respond to LinkedIn status updates

HootSuite can be used for a number of purposes, but I simply use it to schedule updates. I can spend around 10 minutes and schedule updates that will be broadcasted over one or two days. This is quite fun because even if I’m sleeping or in a meeting, my messages are going out to the world.

So I don’t even need to be on the actual websites of Facebook and Twitter, and I can still be managing my activity there.

It’s not about working hard so much. Sure we have to work hard, but we can be smart as well. And all of this can be fun, while still getting to business results that we want. But we have to remain disciplined.

Photo credit: andrew_mc_d

The mind has incredible power. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.” If we take just a little effort to change how we think about things, new dimensions open up for us.

The Internet is huge, would you agree with me? I think you would. I was at the Coral International Hotel a few days ago (my second visit, and I highly recommend it) and I picked up a copy of an international newspaper there. An article by Arno Maierbrugger mentioned that, “By the end of last year, a total of 192 million domain names had been registered by internet users throughout the world, according to data by internet infrastructure provider VeriSign.”

I’d say the number is much higher than that though. Many websites use sub-domains – like photos.jayz.co.za, which do not need to be registered. Also, WordPress.com and other companies provide countless millions of sub-domains to their members.

So how do you stand out in such a mass of content. The key is to be different. The key is to be unique. And the funny thing is that we are all already unique. But due to society, peer pressure, and what is known as “group think” – many of us try to conform to be like everybody else. We discard our individuality for acceptance. And in doing so, we lose our unique essence.

I try my best to be myself all the time. I’m a teacher, so I try to teach. Many Social Media blogs rush to get out the latest Social Media news of the day. I don’t do that. For all the best news, go to Mashable.com – Pete Cashmore has done a fantastic job growing that website into the best online resource in this space. My blog is about ideas. Insights. And it’s specifically geared at the lay person. This is not a blog for geeks, although many may label me as a geek. It was refreshing to get a message on Twitter recently from Jo Duxbury who said to me, “It was so refreshing to see blog posts that are intelligent and original.” I don’t mention that to impress you, but I want to impress upon you the importance of being yourself.

Will Smith, in this video, says, “Being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity.” Once we set ordinary goals, we just become ordinary. Why not set huge and unrealistic goals? I saw something interesting on Twitter today, which said: “Don’t tell me that the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” I like that sort of thinking.

Seth Godin is, in my opinion (and the opinion of some millions), a marketing genius. I have (only) 3 of his books, and I highly recommend getting any of them. At the last talk I did, I told the audience that if they go to a book store and see any book by Seth Godin, they should grab it and buy it – without hesitation. Yes, he’s that good. Seth is Seth. He speaks his mind, and he is very intuitive. I like that.

I found this interesting video of him, it’s titled “The Mindset of a Winner” – and I think it’s valuable that’s why I’m sharing it with you. I’m sure that after watching this video you will sit back – at least for a minute – and think about what you’re doing in your business. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

Photo credit: thost

Firstly, we have the opportunity to be specialists. The time is over for generalists. We no longer want to deal with one company that does everything – because we know that each avenue of expertise is so deep and advanced, that a generalist company can only scratch the surface of each of these avenues. Specialists can go to the depths. We want people who eat, sleep, and talk their expertise. Industries and businesses are evolving at such a rapid rate, that a generalist is no longer a valuable asset. And being specialists, we should be doing less. Being an effective specialist means doing less. It means being focused. It means choosing when and how we want to work. It means choosing the type of clients we want to work for. It means redefining success.

Seth Godin says in Small is the new big that, “Maybe you need to be a lot pickier about what you do and for whom you do it.” He continues by sharing the following…

Dan, a real-estate developer I met recently, told me that he does one new investment a year. It’s not unusual for his competition to do ten or a hundred deals in the same period of time. What Dan told me, though, really resonated: “In any given year, we look at a thousand deals. One hundred of them are pretty good. One is great.” By only doing the great deals, Dan is able to make far more money than he would if he did them all. He can cherry-pick because his goal isn’t volume.

Secondly, we should outsource everything that is not core to our business. It is common place today for companies to have employees stationed around the globe, working remotely. It’s even more common place to use individuals and companies to do secondary tasks. Once we set ourselves free and relinquish control, we have the opportunity to engross ourselves in what our mission is. Tim Ferris is a master at this. You should pick up his book The 4-Hour Work Week wherein he expounds on ideas to liberate ourselves from limited and ancient thinking patterns.

Even the City of Los Angeles, California has outsourced it’s email and communication infrastructure to Google. In October 2009, the city replaced its Novell GroupWise system with Google Apps. The city estimated the move at around $7.25 million, but Los Angeles officials believe the move will save millions in software licensing, maintenance, and storage costs while improving security. Email (as well as other communication items) are now outsourced to Google. This is phenomenal.

Randi Levin, Chief Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles:

City employees fulfill a range of important functions – from policing our streets to supplying water and power to city residents and businesses, and from operating our libraries to designing and building wastewater treatment plants and other public facilities. We want to provide all these employees with modern tools that help them do their jobs.

Outsourcing is something that we as entrepreneurs really need to get our heads around. And quickly. Inside of our businesses, we also need to learn to delegate more. Outsourcing is a type of delegation, but it technically refers to delegating to external resources. Warren Buffet: “We delegate almost to the point of abdication.”

Tim Ferris goes a step further though. He says, “Eliminate before you delegate.”

He explains…

Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined. Otherwise, you waste someone else’s time instead of your own, which now wastes your hard-earned cash.

This is a subject that I’m passionate about, so I plan to write much more on it over the coming weeks…

Photo credit: cliche

The answer is “yes” to all of these questions. I believe that moderation is crucial in all aspects of life. Yes, Web 2.0 and Social Media have changed industries and many business and communication fundamentals, but we need not – and should not – discard everything that worked well before.

Press the flesh is a term I picked up in a book called The Rules of Entrepreneurship by Rob Yeung. [I incorrectly referred to it as "Touch the flesh" in a recent seminar - apologies.] It refers to meeting people and shaking their hands. I believe this is vital. I try to have a few meetings every week. One per day would be great, but currently that’s just not possible with all the desk work I have to do. Meetings are great, they reveal a lot about the people that we’re doing business with (partners, associates, clients) – but even more importantly, they help build the relationship like no online activity can. It’s all about relationships, isn’t it? It’s all about people, isn’t it? I also have a policy to not have my MacBook out at a first meeting. I am surprise how rushed people are to get out their laptops and do some screen-dazzling. Nope. I want to get to know the person first. Let’s talk.

A few months ago someone who does similar work to what I do posted something on Facebook. He said that we should do away with all boardrooms and meeting rooms, and all meetings should take place online. I think that’s absurd. I’ll even go as far as to say it’ll never happen.

Throwing the baby out with the bath water is almost never a good idea. Adapt, yes. Change, yes. Grow, yes. Innovate, yes. Have blinkers on, no!

I still use business cards, even though I know that if you Google my name you will find so much information about me. Business cards still help when meeting people, and they also help in giving contact information to people who are not online all day like we are (yes, there still are many of those types of people). Meetings are irreplaceable. However, I must say this. I meet when I feel it’s a good thing to meet. I’m fully aware that many people and organisations are stuck in having-meetings-about-other-meetings syndrome, and they waste hours each month in unproductive activity. This is not a good thing. I have many online meetings (using tools such a Skype and Dimdim), and I even do coaching and seminars online – but I balance those with personal meetings and events. Boardrooms? Like books, I think they’re going to be around for a VERY long time. There’s too much value in these things for them to be replaced overnight. Maybe in 50 years things will be different, I don’t know. But we’re talking about our current situation, and perhaps the near future.

Rob Yeung says:

“Touch trumps tech every time…A single meeting a day may win you more business than hours of phone calls, letter writing, and emails combined…Secure that contact and press the flesh.”

It all about balance, I guess.