DISQUS

The thing about being a trailblazer is there's no one in front of you to fight the tigers (or mammoths) along the way.

But that's the best part.

:)

I only have one small point to make today (for a change). This is all just as true for individuals as it is for companies.

:)

Kind of ironic how the internet is supposed to make everything faster, but in the end, it takes up so much of our time.

I like the comment from @jonknight - you get out of it what you put into it. And you only have to put into it what you want. Nobody's forcing anyone to read 700 blogs. There are no rules, just techniques based upon desired personal (or professional) outcomes. That's the beauty. The choice is ours.

:)

Though I think this is true in some ways - these tools facilitate the connections that can result in close friendships, new opportunities, and such...I do think that there's a tendency for us to over analyze what's really going on in this space, and sometimes to "try too hard" to make friends with everyone all the time. There's often an expectation that just because I reach out to someone or they reach out to me that we must then become good friends. People simply don't have the bandwidth to manage that many REAL friendships, let alone add new ones all the time.

Really, what it comes down to, is we either make a connection with someone or we don't. We become friends or we don't. We do business together or we don't. It's not really THAT much different than the offline world, come to think of it.

:)

Nicely done, dude. Just made my Dr.'s appointment. :)

Community is the reason many of us get up in the morning. The sense of camaraderie, sharing, and friendship that one feels when one is part of a strong community is unmatched by just about any other type of relationship.

Tools are tools. In the "old" days (15 years ago), communities were built using tools such as the telephone, handwritten correspondence, or with face to face interactions. Communities of old were unshakable and capable of changing lives on a daily basis.

Now, we have tools that provide us access to a worldwide and instantaneous network of like-minded people. The power I, as an individual, now have to listen, learn, share, create and collaborate with people from anywhere, at any moment, is vast and awe-inspiring.

This IS the next big thing. We are living in an era of great change, great challenges and great expectations. It's by virtue of these strong community ties that we are able to meet our planet's most serious issues head on. Community is the great connector, the great equalizer, and quite possibly the thing that will mean our ultimate success in overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds.

Thank you, Danny, for leading the charge - for without great leaders, great communities will never flourish.

This should be good. I'm sorry I'm going to miss it. Gave some money anyway. Have fun!
:-)

I produce a television show that airs on a local, non-commercial broadcaster. We have sponsors who pay us money to advertise on the show via product placements, still graphics, 15 second live motion ads, and us talking nice about them on camera. There are rules that govern specifically what we can and can't do. These rules are set out by the CRTC (governing body for broadcasting in Canada) about what we can and can't say/do, but generally speaking they are pretty flexible.

Our sponsors pay for the production of the show. If that money wasn't there, the show would not exist. Simple.

I am having trouble understanding what's different in terms of paid blog posts. In non-commercial television and radio (think PBS, community television and radio), sponsorship has been around forever and nobody seems to have an issue with it. But for some reason bloggers (also considered non-commercial) are being punished for getting paid to do the occasional post? Seems like a bit of a double standard to me.

I like money too. :)

Something I've been saying for a while is, social media is not about the tools. Unfortunately, our perceived utter dependance on things like Twitter, Facebook and even our own blogs is so ingrained in the way we do things that when the tools don't function like they should or, inevitably, malicious uses begin to come about, we do nothing more than throw up the red flags, panic, and talk about it ad nauseum - without even considering other alternatives.

At what point are we going to stop being so dependant on the creators of online tools for our success in this medium? Whether it's Twitter buckling under it's own weight, or Facebook continuing to be marred by poor design and bad privacy, perhaps it's time for us to start to focus more on relationships - not only between each other but between all of the information we have made available online.

It's shocking how much sense these slides do make without the live talk to go along with...oh, wait a minute. Not it's not. :)

Good stuff.

I think some of these things can work (perhaps in the area of prayer, sporting events) but frankly, I would be pretty hesitant to get medical advice from a social network or even travel information for that matter. The accuracy of the information could not possibly be reliable via this method and could hinder more than it helps.

There are times when crowdsourcing works great. There are other times when it's just noise.

I think it's fine and well and important to analyze the trends in one's industry and to keep one's finger on the pulse, as it were.

However I do think that often, people spend far too much time analyzing and far too little time actually doing any real work with what they've discovered.

Talk is cheap...but hard work is where the real payoff comes.

Oh great, now you've got me all ranty too. :-)

The line has blurred for me personally when it comes to in person connections vs. online ones. Perhaps it's because I try at every opportunity to actually meet face to face with people I've met online. Perhaps it's because, once I do meet them, I feel as if the connection has gotten deeper. You're right..there's nothing that compares to in-person human interaction. You can't get that same connection through Skype, or Twitter, or even video chat.

I met my friend Jon Swanson face to face for the first time last week, after about a year of only knowing each other online. Until I spoke to him on the phone about 1/2 hour before our meeting, we'd only ever communicated in TEXT. That's right - our ENTIRE friendship was based on text conversations. You and I were the same way, Danny, for about 6 months, remember? This small fact has not made us any less friends.

Jon summed it up brilliantly. He said that when you finally meet someone face to face, the conversation just continues in the physical world. Then once you move back to the online space, it just continues again. Same conversation. Different realms.

So I guess what I've learned is both types of relationships are equally meaningful and valuable. And I no longer categorize people into "online friends" and "in-person friends". They're all friends.

We had an office last year. It was a nice space, in a really funky neighbourhood. We gave it up last year for a few reasons.

Our team now works remotely, and to be honest we don't miss the office. If we need to meet in person or with clients, we are fortunate to have access to meeting room space at one of our partner companies.

I rotate my office from home to coffee shop depending on what I'm working on, and I love the flexibility of being able to work when I need to. I especially love not having to commute. I especially especially love not having to run to the office to check video renders in the middle of the night.

The more time goes on, the more widely accepted the "digital nomad" will be, I think. Places like the Code Factory here in Ottawa http://www.thecodefactory.ca/ are making it even more accessible and acceptable. My next office will not be an office at all. It will be a functional video studio, and it will only be elsewhere because it won't fit in my basement. :)

A timely post because I was just thinking about this yesterday when I was there. Here's what McDonalds does right in my opinion. I have little-to-no experience entertaining young children for long periods of time. However, yesterday I was tasked with entertaining my 8 and 5 year old nephews for an afternoon.

McDonalds for lunch was the obvious choice. Why? Well it's like they made the place for people like me who have limited skills at child wrangling. They get you up to the counter and fast, don't give you a million options to choose from, get you to the table quickly with toys in hand, then they give you a place for the kids to run around in and burn off the calories they just consumed. Plus, my nephews don't get to eat there very often so it's a big treat for them and I look like the superstar Aunt.

Win win win.

Although I'd argue that there is a community of sorts going on there - as evidenced by the small conversations I was able to strike up with other parents while the kids were off battling dragons in the Playland.

140 characters, a blog post, a television show, a book, a podcast, a keynote presentation, a business meeting.

We're all just telling stories, aren't we?

Sure, I think we would love to have that personalized feeling with every interaction we undertake. However I think that peoples' expectations have grown along with the reach. They expect to be treated like individuals and have that warm and fuzzy "neighbourhood" feel with every interaction they have, and companies are being forced to try and find ways to make this happen. Unfortunately, many companies go about it entirely wrong. Simply putting my name in the greeting line of a letter or email isn't going to do it. But I see this all too often as companies try to "personalize" communications.

What it comes down to is people. Human interaction. Want me to feel warm and fuzzy? Then make sure I'm not on permahold for 45 minutes before I get to your customer service trainee who is having a bad day and doesn't understand my question. Make sure the person behind the cash is connecting with every customer - looking them in the eye, smiling, being helpful. Like Becky said above, neighbourhoods are intensely personal. And intensely human.

Just when I am about to start wondering why I jumped off the cliff and out on my own, just when I'm about to hit the panic button and retreat to the cozy confines of security and safety, you come along and kick my ass.

Thank you!

#9 is my favourite. And the one I most often forget to do. Thanks for the reminder. :)

Hmm, this is interesting. My blog tends to be a bit of a "brain dump" of what I'm thinking about at that present moment. As a result, it's kind of "a bit of everything" (what Amber Naslund called it). I guess I decided early on that I didn't want to talk about JUST social media or JUST video or JUST what my dog did to the carpet last night. I don't have 10 drafts in the can and I often write my posts in my head at 3am or in the car. Usually my grammar and spelling is okay so I've got that going for me.

Perhaps I'm doing it wrong?

you, my friend, are a funny, funny man. Please sign me up and a course for all my friends too. You forgot to mention the first 50 applicants get a free Sham-Wow.

I suppose it's a sort of "if you build it, they will come" approach but with a good twist. Anderson did not start this business because he wanted to make a quick buck. The business grew out of his passion for this type of technology. Therefore, everything he put into it had genuine intention behind it. The community grew out of a shared passion - he had the ability to seek out those people who wanted to be involved with this stuff.

This is a good lesson for those of us who are out here trying to build successful businesses and an excellent reminder of where our intentions should lie. Thanks for sharing this.

Like so many other things, listening is a skill that must be developed. The best advice I've heard about how to listen effectively comes from spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, who says that the way to ensure that you are really, really listening is to remain focused in the now. If all other distractions are cleared away, then you are able to clearly set your intention on listening to the person who is talking to you and absorbing their message.

It's much, much easier said than done - but try it next time you are at an event, in a room full of people. Try to let everything else go, and focus all your attention on the person who is talking to you. Not only will you get more out of the conversation, but the person will respond to your focused energy in a positive way and you'll make an even stronger connection. It works! Try it! :)

My rock is most definitely my husband. What I love best is that no matter how crazy my life gets (and it gets pretty crazy), home is my soft spot to land, and he is the one who makes it that way.

For a foundation I couldn't ask for better than my family. They made me who I am today, and it's with their love and support that I continue my journey forward.

Thanks for the reminder that the foundation upon which you sit and the rocks that are your support are worthy of our acknowledgment as often as possible.

I think it's all about balance. If I spent all day long just blogging, then people would definitely have a sense of what's going on inside my head at any given moment (since that's pretty much what my blog is - random thoughts).

However, if I wasn't able to balance that with writing media content for my clients, business proposals, presentations, lectures, etc. my business wouldn't be very profitable.

You choose the medium based on the message. Not to get all McLuhan-ey on you or anything, but the method you use to communicate something is as important as the message itself, if you want your message to be effective. (McLuhan would have said it's more important). These days, with so many channels, that holds true more than anything else.