Christine Robinson

Speech Recognition

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:14:58 +0000

To Type or not to Type – that is the question!

I am sooooo excited because for the last 2 months I have been in the process of writing my book. According to the wonderful authority on the subject Glenn Dietzel –

"Writing is the doing part of thinking" and we all have a 'million dollar idea in us".

Now although I don't particularly love writing, or so I thought (I'm much more a Maths girl!), I have really enjoyed putting pen to paper and writing down my thoughts, knowledge and experiences. It is truly amazing what turns up on the paper in blue when you let the pen flow and don't allow any inhibitions stand in your way! Glenn advises to allocate chunks of time to 'just write'. But more on that later. The purpose of this post is to let all you budding authors out there, or writers of any form; articles, blog posts and so on about a discovery I made last week.

Once the free flow handwriting process has happened you then obviously need to either type out your words into a word doc or similar, have it transcribed for you or you can use speech recognition software. Now I had seen my sister-in-law Maureen Gordon, fellow budding author and Art Historian (Central School of Art, Adelaide), using a well known speech recognition software to create her lecture notes. I asked her about it – we are in the recommendation age after all. She loves it and highly recommends it.

So off I went to the local big computer store to find the recommended software to be almost $300, wow! While I was reading the package, a kind and observant lady came over to ask me if I knew there was 'free' speech recognition software on Windows. Her father is also writing a book and a friend of his told him (recommendation age …) just before he handed over the $300 for same software as I was about to.

I immediately came home and low and behold after doing a search on my hard drive, I not only found the 'free' speech recognition program, but also tutorials on how to use it, amazing and so much fun. I have asked many, many friends and colleagues if they know about this and it's a well kept secret, well until now that is. I just know that you can't wait to go tell all of your friends about your new discovery and are itching to blog about this post or hit the Tweet button above!!

So hit that 'Start' button and do a search for 'speech recognition' and within 20 minutes you can be typing your own blog posts, or next best seller, while doing the dishes …

Tribal Marketing

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:19:46 +0000

The Importance of Tribes in Today's Business Environment

AsThere's so much attention being given now to the idea of "building a tribe" but is it really that important? And what role, if any, does it play in building and growing your business? Let's take a closer look to understand things more clearly, shall we?

To begin with, let's try to understand what a "tribe" really is.

According to Definition.com, a tribe is "a class or set of persons, esp. one with strong common traits or interests".
Likewise, a tribe is a "group of people sharing an occupation, interest, or habit"- TheFreeDictionary.com.
Now, according to Seth Godin, a best selling author, entrepreneur and agent of change, a tribe is "a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea".

Additionally Seth Godin claimed that most of us exhibit tribal behaviors. There is an inherent need for us to connect with other people who share the same interests as we do. Why do you think that is a site or a blog on almost any topic, no matter how obscure it may seem? And why is there an online forum for almost any topic known to man? It is because of our need to connect, our need to share our views and opinions with kindred souls. And that makes us a part of a tribe.

You may not know it but you probably belong to a number of tribes. Consider these:

You love surfing. You share this passion with a few of your friends. You have your own uniform (wetsuit when you're in the water; board shorts, jams or baggies, Ugg boots, Vans or flip-flops, T-shirts and Hawaiian shirts when you're out of it) and your own language. You check the waves every morning and gather around the ocean when there is a swell. You and your friends are, in fact, members of the Surfers Tribe, along with countless others you may not even know of. J
You love your Mac and you're extremely proud of it. For you, it's Mac or nothing. Well, guess what? You're a part of the Mac Tribe!
You most probably are a member of a church. And this, in a sense, is one classic example of a tribe. You are connected to the head of the Church and to the other members as well, right? And you most probably share the same views and opinions when it comes to your religion.

And the list goes on and on and on…

So, what is the relevance of "tribes" in today's world, particularly in our economy? Do they have any important role to play in the way businesses operate? Yes, they do! And the importance of tribes had never been more significant than it is now.

As Seth Godin puts it, tribes have huge implications for marketers. The way tribes think, act and decide greatly influence the way we do business today. Gone are the days when you (the marketer) just have to make sure everyone knows about your product, service, or idea in order to grow your business.

Now, with the emergence of tribes, the success of your business depends on whether or not you reach out to people who are passionate about your idea, and lead them toward achieving a common goal. Hard sales pitches and loud advertisements don't work anymore. You need to genuinely relate to your customers, your tribe, to make it work.

Now, are you starting to see the potentials of harnessing the power of tribes? How can you build a tribe, be a good leader, and grow your business at the same time? We'll talk more about these later so watch out for it!

As you can tell Seth Godin is a true leader in the art of any kind of marketing and especially Tribal Marketing so I have included 2 videos for you:

Seth Godin Explains Why You Need a Tribe

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead

Hello world!

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:32:18 +0000

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