Second, I think it’s especially easy to forget just what we’re all trying to do here. Namely, to improve the lives of a few people and make online interactions more elegant and straightforward for the rest.

I won’t get into whether beauty is a use in itself or not, but I’m certain that we could all use more happiness. Norman added a bit of the stuff to my day. I hope you find his presentation enjoyable as well!

Thanks to @joshuacc for the heads up on the video & Jordan Fischer for the thumbnail.

3 Ways Good Design Makes You Happy – Don Norman is a post from: Simonds Media

Again, and again, and again. Practice sharing stories. Write stories. Sing stories. Mumble stories in your lonely drunken stupors.

Then publish them online.

The web is swarming with readers willing to ignore boring content. Why not give them something interesting? You might not hit one out of the park on the first try, or even the 5oth. But you will learn through the process and you will improve.

Here’s how you can get started:

• Step 1 – Think of a good story from your past. It doesn’t have to be an amazing, shocking, or groundbreaking story. It just has to be your story. Know it well and you’ll share it best.
• Step 2 – Think of how that story shaped you and what you can share with others as a result. This thinking can happen whenever you like. I get my best thinking done during the last 3 miles of a run.
• Step 3 – Go wash some dishes. Some of the best writing in the world was first conceived over a sink filled with dishes.
• Step 4 – Write down your story and ensuing thoughts.
• Step 5 – Let the piece sit for at least a week. You’ll need at least a week to pass before you start to forget what you wrote. Forgetting what you wrote is key to giving yourself the sort of distance you’ll need to objectively tweak your work for the better.
• Step 6 – Read your piece out loud to yourself and fix anything that doesn’t contribute to a general sense of flow. Don’t be lazy.
• Step 7 – Share the piece with at least 20 people. You can do this through a blog, Facebook note, whatever. Share the results of your work. If you don’t know many people, find me on Twitter, tell me you wrote a story, and I’ll help you find some readers. If you’ve followed the 6 previous steps, I’m sure I’ll like what you came up with enough to share it. Well, not if you wrote about how something relates to Twitter. We don’t need more stories that relate back to Twitter. =)

Get cracking!

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Ira Glass on The Basics of Storytelling is a post from: Simonds Media

In the quest to be clever, I completely forgot about the people that I love and the people that love me. And I went, as I had begun to do, into a wormhole of selfishness, and greediness, and arrogance in thinking that if I would just continue to be speedy and witty and pull together as many fast words and phrases that I could.

That I could be clever enough to buy myself another day without thinking that anybody would find me, pin me down, and say, “you’re a creep.”

When I should have just given that up and played the guitar a little more, I didn’t. So I decided that I’d try to be as clever as possible all the time. And I did that at the expense of people I love, and that feels absolutely terrible. It feels worse than any headline I thought I could get out of.

It’s just not worth being clever. I just quit. I quit the sound bite game, I quite the media game. I’m out. I’m done. I just want to play my guitar to whoever is around. If that means there’s less people because I somehow think that if I’m not witty and I don’t come up with the newest little clever thing, then that’s fine. I just want to play my guitar again with this band.

Are you trying too hard to be clever?

John Mayer and The Quest To Be Clever is a post from: Simonds Media

It’s rare that you’ll see a well-rested, socially adjusted, and emotionally fulfilled individual publish rants to a blog or Twitter page. But if you take sleep, confidence, and satisfaction from the happiest of people you’ll quickly see sniveling, snapping beasts emerge.

They’re not evil. Just fatigued. Unfortunately, “I was tired” won’t fix the damage caused by unsightly outbursts. You can avoid many of their mistakes by putting the following into practice:

Have a plan

You don’t need a complex content strategy with specific action steps for implementation. A general sense of direction will typically be enough to help you avoid a soul-sucking quagmire of pointless bloviation.

Once you’ve decided on a general goal, write down a few daily actions you need to move toward your goal. You might hate the idea of codifying something as fluid as social media. But you’ll quickly find that having a written plan for your social media adventure will remove a lot of the uneasiness that causes fatigue for so many.

Track your time

Know where your time is being spent in social media. Getting into the habit of tracking your time online takes persistent effort before you’ll begin to see results. Right now I use Toggl to track time spent leaving comments on other blogs, reading RSS feeds, responding to email, etc. I prefer to go old school for more focused writing and use an egg timer to give a sense of urgency to my writing efforts.

Maintain fueling stations

Say you’re on a road trip and you notice your car is low on fuel. What do you do? Start looking for a fueling station, of course. The same goes for social media only the energy inputs and outputs are emotional instead of petroleum-based. As you’re meeting new people and establishing new connections, keep an eye out for those that have a particular talent for encouraging you.

These people will be of particular value in the future to you as they will help you stay sane in spite of any craziness in your life. If you’re not good about staying in touch with people, make a list of your “fueling stations” and check in with them regularly. Stay present and these people will change your life for the better.

Take breaks

The only way your online social network should be able to collapse if you leave for a few days is if you’re running the network off a home computer that loses power. Make a regular practice of withdrawing from your virtual existence to get the full sensory experience of living in the real world. Coffee with friends need not always be a tweet-up. Your dinner won’t taste any different if you fail to become the mayor of a restaurant on Foursquare. If there’s a real emergency, people will call 911 instead of emailing you.

They’ll figure things out. They’ll be okay. Take a break and have some fun, I say!

Delay reactions

Social media’s instant feedback makes for a terrible temptation when it comes to publishing overly emotional content. If we were writing letters, making phone calls, or even sending emails it’s unlikely that many of our rants would make it into public view. There’s an attraction to display erratic behavior and emotions though. We’re told that such behavior is a mark of authenticity and “being real.” That’s a conversation for another time and place. In the meantime, I’m certain that, much as it pains me to say it, my mother was right when she said:

Take a deep breath and give it another go when you don’t feel like stabbing somebody.

If you have some advice of your own to add or a question about your own social media process, let me know in a comment. Thanks for taking the time to read and share this article!

Image: source

5 Keys To Avoiding Social Media Fatigue is a post from: Simonds Media

An example of a headline and lead image working together. You’re welcome to use them if you like. Just be sure to let me know what you come up with!

Twenty Years After Harry Met Sally is a post from: Simonds Media

1. Handle Criticism Badly

The insular nature of web interactions serves as an emboldening serum to many otherwise nice people. The opportunity to be cruel without tangible social stigma is often too much of a temptation for some to resist. They stumble across a post that has a poorly-structured argument or incomplete thought and feast upon the weakness like a food critic gnawing on a hunk of gristle at a five-star restaurant.

If you don’t have thick skin, being the recipient of such barbed comments can be daunting. Worse, it can be enough to make an otherwise avid blogger give up. Lauren, when asked her why she’d given up blogging said,

“I haven’t felt so verbally abused since spending a summer with my alcoholic aunt as a 10 year-old!”

What’s the solution? There are three things I suggest you try:

1. Close comments on your blog for at least 5 posts — This may take a week or 5 months depending how frequently you publish articles. Not having any instant feedback will allow you to relearn (or perhaps learn for the first time) how to write without worrying about negative feedback .
2. Take a less personal approach to topics — Instead of saying, “I believe” use phrases such as, “many believe” and use quotes from noted thinkers instead of trying to come up with an argument entirely on your own. This type of article takes more effort to write but responses will be more thoughtful and you might learn something in the process!
3. Have a blog buddy you can moan to — Having another blogger to bounce frustration and confusion off of will do wonders for your ability to handle negative feedback and outright meanness on your blog. But you already knew that a friend is a good thing to have!

Thick skin takes a lot of practice and plenty of support from understanding friends. Do what you can to get enough of both.

2. Fear Public Scrutiny

Fear of public scrutiny goes much deeper with most bloggers than a simple fear of negative feedback. “What will they think of me” reverberates constantly through the blogger’s head as draft after draft is rejected for fear that others will judge it too harshly. It’s easy to obsess over the seeming finality of hitting “publish.” There’s something deliciously artistic about worrying oneself into a coma over what others might think of an unwritten article. Feeling artsy won’t get you success though.

How do you get past the fear? How do you dig deep and share your perspective on concepts you care about without spending too much time thinking about what “They” will think? Here are just three reminders to get you started:

1. Silence is often the riskier choice — If you share your perspective with thoughtful care you’ll attract a community of like minds. Say nothing and you will certainly miss out on an entire world of new ideas and fulfilling relationships. Don’t miss that!
2. Updates are allowed at any stage — If you have a change of heart, find new information, or are inspired with some new insight, go back and make sense of your words! Just make sure to include a note letting your readers know what changed and why. They’ll respect you more for it.
3. Treat this time like celebrity training — If you were a famous author you’d have even more people pummeling you with random bits of advice and criticisms. Treat your blog like a test run for when you make it big later. Think I’m crazy? Enough nobodies have become somebodies through blogging for me to think the list might just include you soon. Just keep working at it!

The world can be a scary place but history says that your most revolutionary ideas will take a lifetime of work to popularize. Focus on sharing what matters to you and let the strangers surfing the web do as they like.

3. Obsess Over Layout

Wanting to tweak your blog layout (theme) isn’t a bad thing in itself. If you read a lot of blogs there’s a good chance that you daily see some feature or function that you’d love to have on your own blog. Optimization is a good thing. But constantly changing your theme and obsessing over layout can wreak havoc on your blog for two particular reasons:

• You put so much focus on the look of your blog that you neglect the content.
• Existing readers get the idea that you’re a frenetic blogger and go elsewhere.

As one long-time (think early livejournal days) friend said of his Wordpress experience:

I spent so much time customizing the look of my blog that I never really got around to getting any writing done. Nobody wanted to hang around watching me change themes and I eventually got bored of the entire process.

Sound familiar? If so, here are three places to start with sensible layout choices and changes:

1. Make a wish list of features and functions — As you find new features and use more functions on blogs you come across, make a list of all your favorites. When it comes time that you’re sure that the only thing holding you back is your theme you’ll have a “shopping list” that will make easy work of finding the perfect theme.
2. Wait for the money — A simple way to curb theme envy is to wait until you’re making money with your blog to spend any on it. Eying that slick premium theme? Consider holding off on purchasing it until you’ve reached a certain level of income through your blog.
3. Make certain it’s the theme that bothers you — Do you really want to change your theme or are you dissatisfied with your blog in general and changing the theme seems like the quickest fix? If you just feel like it’s time for a change, consider trying a different writing style, publishing guest posts, or installing a custom typeface. You may find that your original theme was good enough the entire time.

It’s just too much fun to change themes sometimes. (As I go to change the sidebar layout for the 3rd time this week!) Make sure you’re only changing your theme for multiple and very specific reasons. You’ll see more consistent growth as a result of your unwavering attention to the details that really matter. You know, the content?

4. Try to Completely Control Content

It might come as a surprise to you that many people are not comfortable with the notion of Creative Commons and the fluidity of most web content. Publishing something on a blog only to have bits of it ripped away as fodder for seemingly unrelated discussions can be a shocking and even depressing event.

While some are able to enjoy the sense of notoriety that comes with having an idea spread, there is often a sense of loss. It’s as if something has been stolen. In some cases, something has. Yet another friend with a dead blog recounted her reasoning for abandonment as,

I got so sick of pouring my heart out only to have posts stolen or obliterated with self-serving commentary that I closed shop. It just wasn’t fun anymore.

How do you counteract the frustration and annoyance of having bits of your content “repurposed” and bear the weight of overzealous commenters? Three things to start with:

1. Create a comment policy and stick to it — A comment policy can be a pain to write and feel a bit snobby to publish but it’ll save you loads of time and irritation in the long run. Rubbish comment got you frustrated? Confirm with your policy and delete the comment. It’s your blog, your call. Doesn’t that feel better now?
2. Track your content — Use Google Alerts, internal links (links from one of your articles to another), and occasional searches for unique phrases to keep an eye on your content. If you find a gross violation of your copyright, you have recourse. It just takes a bit of research. Otherwise, it’s often best to comment on the articles that spread your ideas and ignore the ones that will only waste your time.
3. Publish month-old content — In a world of real time tweets and sloppy writing, this solution might strike you as odd. It works though. All you have to do is write content that isn’t especially time-sensitive and schedule it to publish a few weeks into the future. By the time an article is published you’ll have some distance from the content and be able to address ensuing conversations with aplomb.

Trying to control every aspect of the content you publish online will drive you nuts and kill your blog if you let it. Take a deep breath and make a plan you stick to for long-term results that don’t make you crazy!

5. Expect Constant Originality

You’re not going to always have something new and revolutionary to say. Wait for genius to come and your blog will never get off the ground. While it’s unlikely that you’ll have a truly groundbreaking idea to discuss on your blog, the world has yet to encounter your perspective on countless topics. Why not share some of that?

Many bloggers, especially those with writing in their background, come at the blogging process like every article published must turn the world upside-down. One recent conversation about a failed blog included this statement:

I started my blog thinking that I’d get all these women to read and participate in it and that we’d be able to bring about real change. Instead I ended up scrambling to get articles up after I’d spent days trying to come up with something spectacular and failed.

While I in no way think you should give up on trying to articulate new ideas and original concepts, the following may help your blog move forward while you’re waiting for your muse to kick in:

1. Participate in the link culture — Get into the habit of giving credit for what inspires you and linking to the articles that drive your thinking. Far from the expected result of making your article look unoriginal, linking to other resources positions you as a thoughtful and connected resource! The more you link out from intelligent content the more others will come find you and join in your blogging project.
2. Leverage comments for more content — When a commenter gets you going on a topic, consider responding in a post instead of an extended comment. This will allow you to keep a conversation going from point to point and take away some of the stress that comes with having to produce content regularly. The commenter you’re responding to with your post will almost certainly respond to your new post and get another conversation going. A win!
3. Take old ideas and apply them for today — If you can’t think of something brilliant to say, channel the ancients. From your mother to Socrates, the people who came before you had timeless wisdom that only you can share with your particular voice. If you find it useful and interesting your readers will probably like it to. Have  fun with it!

Getting caught up in any part of blogging can lead to burnout and the death of your blog. Knowing what to expect and planning for sustainable growth will give your blog the best possible shot at being the next TMZ or TechCrunch. Writing a blog you’re proud to share with your friends is a success in it’s own right. It’ll take some effort to find a system and style that works for you but the result will be a blog that is both interesting to write and (mostly) fun to maintain.

Best of luck with your blogging adventure. If you have any additional tips to share or stories of a blog near-death experience, share!

A subscription to Simonds Media is always free and a smart use of time. Get the RSS feed or email updates.

Images: cb shane, a thor, ld rimmel, s marki, jordan a, anna gay

5 Popular Ways To Murder A Blog is a post from: Simonds Media

You began with a glorious hallucination of what social media was going to do for your business, social life, and even writing ability. You tweeted, facebooked, and smothered Linked-in contacts with glowing recommendations. You commented on all the top blogs in your niche and dutifully updated your own blog on-schedule. You may have even dropped a few hundred dollars to listen to others tell you how to tweet, facebook, and smother.

Then you woke up. You may have read about a freelance writer moving to a tropical island, seen Dell Outlet’s sales report, or heard a podcast from some kids paying for college by selling iPhone apps. No matter the trigger, it suddenly hits you that you seem to be the only one not making big money from this social media “thing.” All the happy conversations, serendipitous connections, and lessons learned seem tarnished and heavy in your hand. You’re exhausted and have so little to show for all your labor!

Welcome to the land of the living, friend! What you’re going through is common for most individuals who pursue a long-term goal without the guidance and feedback of short-term benchmarks. You haven’t done anything wrong. What’s more likely is that you’ve put a lot of energy into doing all the right things without knowing what to expect in return. Your dream of a burgeoning bottom line, pina coladas, and a diverse group of friends is still possible. You simply need to embrace a process. To borrow the words of Rene Descartes,

Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.

That doesn’t sound especially fun, does it? Probably not. But you already had your fun at the beginning when you ran around, happily without direction, soaking up all there was to know about social media. And now? Now you need to put that knowledge to work with a process that will help you reach your goals. Here are three steps and five reminders to help you forward:

The Process:

I’ll be breaking down each step into further detail with preferred methods and tools in future articles. [subscribe so you don't miss out]

1. Dream

Dreaming is the fun part. This is where you get to go crazy with brainstorming, mind-mapping, and generally embrace the irrational. If you’re lucky, you’ll come away with a general direction and perhaps some specific points you’d like to reach.

2. Dissect

Dissection is rarely fun. You have to take all the fuzzy bunnies from the dream stage and chop them into bite-size chunks. If you’re not comfortable with using spreadsheets and calendars because some conference guru told you that, “social media is about people, not MBA mumbo-jumbo” please click [here] to re-enter your dream. If, however, you are ready to begin making tangible progress toward your social media goals, dissection won’t be especially frightening for you. Start with a big goal, divide it into smaller sub-goals, and outline how you’ll reach those sub-goals through weekly achievements. Take a deep breath. It’s cool. You’re going to be fine.

3. Demonstrate

Demonstration is not as much fun as dreaming but has the lovable perk of being the phase where you get to see real progress taking place each week. You have your goals, sub-goals, and steps. Now you need to actually go through those steps consistently. One thing I’ve found very helpful in my own process is the idea of a 20-minute daily base. It’s a short list of daily tasks that I must do if I want to reach my goals on-time. Even if I’ve let my schedule get away from me and I don’t have time to complete my full list of tasks, I always have time to get my daily base out of the way.

As you work to develop your own process for a successful social media experience, remember:

1. Money is seldom found in surprising places – If you consistently found money between the cushions on your couch, you’d quit your job and rely on your money couch, right? In a similar vein, the web isn’t loaded with wealthy eccentrics hoping to pay you for the fun of it. Put aside the stories of millions in minutes and focus on what you can do to make your own business model more successful.
2. Your memory isn’t good enough – Don’t trust yourself to remember birthdays, favorite blogs, special talents, and unfinished conversations. My father often quotes the phrase, “The dullest pencil is sharper than the sharpest mind.” Digital media is even sharper because it’s searchable.
3. Minimize “travel” time - If you walk 100 miles in planting a bag of seeds you’ll need to walk that same 100 miles every time you want to water, cultivate, and finally harvest your reward. Make sense?
4. Predictable quality is often better than predictable presence – Just showing up was enough to be a success 5 years ago when most of the developed world didn’t know or care about blogs. Times have changed. Maki (doshdosh) can take 6 months off from blogging and come back without missing a beat. What would happen if Mashable tried the same stunt? The site would fail. Why? Because, while Maki is known for producing legacy content, Mashable continues to come under fire for finding its only relevance through timely remarks. For the individual and small business, Maki’s example is probably the best one to follow.
5. We all have to ration our time – You don’t have the time or stamina to be constantly online and interacting with strangers and customers alike. Recognize, prioritize, and move away from the activities you simply don’t have time for. Putting your time toward activities with real payouts might offend a few near-strangers in the short run but they’ll be back to buy your book once you’ve found success.

N.B. Regarding cookie dough: While many shy away from the pleasures of cookie dough for fear of contracting e. coli, salmonella, or some other end-hastener, you need worry no longer. The bearer of all danger, the common chicken egg, isn’t actually necessary for a decent cookie. Next time you make a batch, use a tablespoon of ground flax seeds and three tablespoons of water in place of each egg. The flax adds a mild nutty flavor, holds the dough as well as any egg, and gives you freedom to save every morsel of dough from the horrors of oven cookery.

image: dough

Social Media: Making The Process More Palatable is a post from: Simonds Media

The gentleman in the photo above looks like he’d be a good mentor. “Here’s how you get perfectly windswept hair as you set up your shot while wearing a most excellent pair of socks.” He seems to say.

What does that have to do with mentorship?

Let’s say you are the person taking the above photo. The camera rests in your grasp with comforting weight. The sailboats in the distance are nearly ready for their race. You have just minutes to take a great photo but you can’t seem to get it.

Frustration starts to set in. You have the equipment. You have the knowledge. You’re in the right spot at the right time. Why, then, are you unable to capture that wisp of inspiration that turns a mediocre ocean scene into a compelling image?

Probably because you haven’t asked the gentleman with the excellent socks for his input. You don’t need him to show you how to use a camera or suggest particular equipment. All you need is a conversation with a knowledgeable person who cares enough to ask you questions and remind you of things you already know.

You need a 5-minute mentorship.

Unlike the long term mentorships that we’re all accustomed to, a 5-minute mentorship is a brief exchange between people who may have just met.

I benefited from an example of a 5-minute mentorship yesterday in a phone conversation with an auto mechanic I’d never met from a store 30 miles away. I was changing the rear brake rotors and pads on my car and had run into some issues with a caliper that seemed to be frozen. (Pushing on the brake pedal puts pressure on the caliper which then squeezes the pads against the rotor to slow your car down.) I don’t need to give you the entire play-by-play for you to know that I was frustrated by a straightforward project that was taking more time and energy than I’d expected.

So I called the mechanic.

“It takes a lot of pressure to force a rear caliper open. You’re forcing it to do something it hasn’t done since new.” He responded to my question.

“At what point should I give up trying and go buy a new caliper?” I asked. I figured he’d tell me to try a bit more before buying a new part. I was in for a surprise.

“Right before you break your back.” He said.

That was all I needed. I had the caliper open in less than five minutes. The second axle took under 15 minutes to complete.

What did the mechanic do? He offered his experience and insight regarding my situation without belittling me or telling me to give up. I had the tools, the knowledge, and the basic experience to get the job done. The mechanic provided the bit of inspiration I needed to press on in spite of my misgivings.

I was able to gain the inspiration I needed without being a hassle because I didn’t need special help or require any sort of training. Just like the photographer standing on the rocky coastline, all I needed was a brief conversation before I could complete a worthwhile project.

What you need to make 5-minute mentorships successful:

• A solid grasp on your topic – 5-minute mentorships are often more successful when they focus on optimization instead of education. Do your research before you start asking for help!
• Be specific – Ask the expert photographer to suggest higher or lower f-stops, not “how can I take a great picture?” Ask the mechanic if there’s a trick to forcing brake calipers open, not “do you have any car maintenance tips?” Ask the creative director to point out weaknesses in a specific piece of copy, not “how can I become a creative director?”
• Worship brevity – Put as little between your introduction and question as possible. Most people are willing to give you a few minutes of their time if they think they can actually help you. If you haven’t found this to be the case in your own experience, it’s probably because you have a tendency to brown nose and blather instead of cutting to the heart of your question. Wasting another’s time is the ultimate display of disrespect. Do your best to avoid it and you’ll soon note that the people around you seem more willing to help.

A 5-minute mentorship is simply a value-added conversation. The question is, are you maximizing the value?

N.B. If you’ve not had the good fortune of coming in contact with David Mann already, I hope you’ll take a moment to follow him on Twitter. He’s proven a constant source of inspiration, thoughtful questions, and value-added conversation at every turn.

image: photographer

Networking: Five-Minute Mentorships is a post from: Simonds Media

“It seems like we’re just pooling our ignorance.” – My mother on healthcare reform

How often do you participate in conversations that involve a lot of talking but very little in the way of real facts? For most of us, the answer is, unfortunately, “far too often.”

These conversations survive and even thrive (especially in social media) because it is considered impolite to ask questions that might break up the flow of conversation. If you are not familiar with what I am talking about, wait until a friend begins a sentence with “Well, they say” and ask your friend who exactly “they” is. Your question will most likely stall the conversation and one or both of you will awkwardly introduce a new topic.

Over time, we develop such a fear of those awkward transitions and stalled conversations that we end up caring more about how a conversation is running than we do about where it is heading. Rushing to speak leads to speaking without thinking. When you take thoughtful consideration of facts and ideas out of a conversation, you are left only with inflection, emotion, and ego. It should be no surprise that such conversations quickly lead to misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and unneeded arguments.

How can we move away from empty conversations and toward interactions that carry weight and create lasting value?

Three suggestions:

• Search online – If you have internet access, there is absolutely no reason why you should entertain a long conversation about the validity of one supposed fact over another. Instead of debating the gestation period of African elephants, Bing it.
• Practice humility – If you are not certain of your facts, admit it! Letting others know that you are aware of what you know for sure and what they can comfortably question frees the conversation to go in new and interesting directions.
• Shift from concrete to abstract – If you cannot remember or find the necessary facts to carry a conversation, consider moving the discussion away from specific facts and toward broad concepts. Instead of discussing OJ Simpson’s murder trial, (of which you remember very little) have a conversation about how justice is redefined by pop culture ideology.

It may not be fun to stop in the middle of a conversation to clarify a point or look up a fact, but the results are certainly (in my estimation) worthwhile.

Communication: Returning Value To Conversations is a post from: Simonds Media

Because heavy use of sarcasm and profanity is not an effective way to build trust.

You might seem like a good person to have a beer with. You might even seem more relatable for your off-color remarks and frequent use of profanity. That said, my cousin Jeff* is a relatable guy I’m sure you’d like to have a beer with. He’s a master of snark and laces every comment with “choice” words and quick jabs. Jeff is also the last person I’d recommend to present your new business plan to a roomful of investors.

Always keep that roomful of investors in mind. In this new media world of Flip cams and Youtube, Google Alerts and Twitter, every word you say in public (and many you say in private) becomes part of your presentation to potential investors. Those investors aren’t just deciding if they want to invest money into your business concept. They are contemplating the possibility that you, as a person, are worthy of their trust.

5 things to remember about authenticity and building trust:

1. Every person you come in contact with is a potential trust-investor. When you earn a person’s trust, you’ll begin to enjoy the perks of trust. Conversations, recommendations, inspiration, and financial involvement are all benefits of well-earned trust.
2. Profanity is a spice, not a main course. Yes, some people eat habanero peppers with abandon, but they are few and far between. Your best bet is to entertain with thoughtful “dishes” and let others bring their own spice. When it comes to the culinary art of conversations, we each have a different idea of perfection.
3. Sarcasm can’t replace true wit and a bright sense of humor. In the economics of intellect, sarcasm is an inferior good. As consumers (your potential trust-investors) experience an increase in good taste, they require less sarcasm in favor of open communication. Leap to the front and start with open communication.
4. It’s possible to be authentic without being caustic. In the words of many wise people and their copycats, “be yourself, but be your best self”. It is tempting to use harsh words because they get a quick and energetic response. Don’t give in to the temptation! Put the time and effort into building thoughtful, productive conversations. The long-term benefits make up for the lack of instant sparks. 
5. You can be relatable without pandering to the lowest common denominator. The joke your friends thought oh-so-funny at the bar last night? It’s probably not that funny and if sharing it today does nothing to sustain or improve your general point, you’ve just wasted time and squandered the precious attention of your audience.

In your rush to be more authentic, don’t forget to show us your positive, uplifting, innovative side. If anybody complains about you slacking in the negativity category, feel free to tell them it’s all my fault. =)

Think of somebody you consider to be truly authentic. What about that person sets him/her apart from the rest?

*Jeff is a fictional name intended to protect the guilty

Image:girls

Authenticity & The Attack of The Snark is a post from: Simonds Media