The Right Tools & Mindset For Success
Mary DeMuth has written over a dozen books but she couldn’t get a publisher to touch her most recent work. Now she’s turning to the masses of people who have been affected by sexual abuse. Here’s my conversation with her about her project.
I hope you’ll support her, this project and those who need to find healing from sexual abuse. (Click here to do that)
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Ok, that’s not true. You can’t really buy a true following of fans, tribe members…whatever you want to call them. Followers can be enticed but they can’t be bought. There’s a really, really normal guy named Jon Acuff who has a killer job working for Dave Ramsey, writes great books and has about 15,000 fans on Facebook. For the record he walked by me a few weeks ago when I was in Nashville at Ramsey headquarters but I’ve never talked to the guy. Anyway, Jon is a really, really normal guy. He’s got gifts for sure but he’s a normal guy. So what makes Jon Acuff so freakin’ special that he’s got 15k fans on Facebook, has three books and a dream job at Ramsey?
Jon ships. Yup. Jon makes stuff like blog posts, videos on YouTube and books. Jon also makes change by using social media and he talks about it in this video.
I invited Jon to be on my Linchpin Podcast and I hope he can make it because he creates things. He doesn’t wait for permission. He takes initiative. Jon inspires me because he didn’t buy his following, he earned it.
You can’t buy a following but you can care. You can add your gifts to the world. I’m inspired by Jon but not in the way I’m inspired by a movie. I get inspired by movies but then I don’t do jack. Thanks for being normal and for being special and for creating things that matter. I’m doing the same in part b/c of other “normal” guys like you.
Today I had the honor of spending some time with Jeff Hayzlett and Jeff Pulver. Since they both have their own Wikipedia pages they’re famous enough that you might know who they are. Hayzlett has worked at Kodak for many years and now has a book out and a television deal. He has his own consulting company now and he’s a local boy (we both live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and despite the media’s misinformation he doesn’t live on a ranch). Jeff Pulver has a fascinating history with technology, from working with ham radios at age 9, making VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) the technology it is today, investing in Twitter to founding and running the movement that is the 140 Conferences.
We had a small a great Tweetup organized by Hugh Weber who is as close as you come to a social media guru (and a genuinely nice guy as well). I put together a video from the notes I took at the event because frankly it felt like it was too important not to document. Here’s a preview of the video…it’s not about the technology, it’s about people’s lives changing through connectivity. If you attended the Tweetup I’d appreciate you sharing what you took away from the event. I know we all learned something significant.
This week I sat down to talk about my journey with my good friend Kevin Miller, founder of the Free Agent Academy. It’s not every day that someone asks me to talk about how I’ve found success advising companies on how to use social media to grow their customer base and deliver better service. It was perhaps my favorite interview of all time and at the same time a very humbling experience. In the first 60 seconds of the interview I tell Kevin what percentage of my success I am responsible for. Hint: it’s a small percentage.
If you’d like to hear some strong opinions then hit play. If you have disagreements or questions about stuff I’ve said then this is the place to voice them (in the comments below). I welcome the opportunity. Thanks for listening.
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Right click to download Andy’s Story with Kevin Miller
