Wednesday Words
To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
…[A]bout 4billion-ish bloggers… think transparent means being just you enough to sell a product.
—Amy Derby
This is not just for blogging, dear reader. Think about it: Are you being you, or being what you think your customers want to believe is you?
I don’t mean that folks have to know everything about your life (I hope I’ve left just a few tidbits out here, for instance), but if you’re trying to game the system by “seeming” transparent to “find an in” with your customers, you’re going to be discovered eventually.
As your intrepid Experience Designer, I’m going to recommend that you be a lot more transparent than that. (So would Amy.)
It’s not about knowing everything about you (none of my business!). It’s about being yourself. That’s a fine point, but a vast difference. I hope you’re with me on this one…
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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19 August 2009, 7:02 am
Yup, yup, and yup.
(Hey, nice new hairstyle!)
I’ll tell you what I’ve learned over the past year and a bit. I work day in, day out with people who do this to “game the system” and they are very, very good at it – much better than most of the folks online, believe it or not.
(Hey, they are pseudo-government snakes, they have to be good at it…)
So I can usually pick up on this quite quickly with the online folks.
There are a lot of authentic people out there, too (like you, and Amy, for instance). So I gravitate towards them – because even if they are offering something for sale, you know it is because they believe in it, and aren’t just trying to make a quick buck.
19 August 2009, 7:30 am
Brett,
Yup, yup, and yup. I’ve had Amy’s quotation stored up for a long time. I was inspired to use it this week by some offline shenanigans I was dealing with recently, so I hear you. Sometimes we think this is a brave new world online. Well, it’s still populated by people, the good ones and the shysters. To quote another song from my long-ago, Same as it ever was. Being you is a lot more (and less…) than “seeming” to be you.
And I make my bucks the old-fashioned way. Slowly (oy!), just like Amy.
Regards,
Kelly
P.S. Thanks on the hair. It sort of has a mind of its own. Calling it a style is giving me too much credit!!
19 August 2009, 7:53 am
Amy Derby…..??
AMY DERBY!!???
OMG!!!!
She Tweets to me!!!! We DM each other!
(*clapping hands with glee**)
Sorry for being excited, there. But it’s not often I’m actually a blogging friend of one of the Cool Kids.
19 August 2009, 8:32 am
Friar,
Funny, I was just talking to a friend about never being in awe of folks no matter how big their reputation is yesterday. And here you are in awe of our own dear Amy.
And anyway, you are one of the Cool Kids.
Until later,
Kelly
19 August 2009, 8:40 am
I suppose we’re all “cool kids”, in a 95th percentile / cutting edge kind of way (I mean, out of all of the “normal kids” you know, how many have blogs and so on?)
19 August 2009, 11:03 am
A dear friend of mine and I have this phrase we use. We call it the “ability to be casual”. Some people have it and some people, no matter what, feel the need to put up some pretense or another.
You’ve seen who we are talking about, people who no matter where they are , they are comfortable in their own skin, able to have a real conversation with anyone. Very portable are they.
And then there are those who seem “scripted.”
And don’t we catch on rather quickly to the script?
19 August 2009, 5:52 pm
Hey Kelly! Always interesting to see how folks interpret my rants.
Hope all is well with you.
–Amy, the non-cool kid pointed to this post by our friendly neighborhood Friar
19 August 2009, 6:48 pm
Brett,
I am not a Cool Kid. But it’s okay, because I know FRIAR!!! And AMY!!!
Oh, dear. Exclamation point day at MCE again…
Janice,
Haha. I was thinking, yeah but what about that third kind… slow to get comfortable in their own skin, yet not scripted either? That would be me… red as a beet in casual situations until I chill out and find my groove.
I guess I’m semi-portable.
Amy,
It was a great rant. I’d forgotten I couldn’t link back to it anymore, and went happily pasting the link into my browser yesterday… oops! So you get a Twitter link.
Curious—Does Twitter give you alerts when someone links to you, or is Friar mentioning it really the only way for you to know?
Until later,
Kelly
19 August 2009, 6:52 pm
Really, from Friar.
I have google alerts on my name, so I’m sure I’ll get those later.
19 August 2009, 7:03 pm
Jeez, with all the Twitter links that get left out in the blogosphere! That’s weird that folks can’t find out about them if, for instance, their name is Kelly Erickson and they dare not have a google alert for their name… hmpf.
19 August 2009, 7:53 pm
You’re cool if you think you’re cool.
19 August 2009, 8:13 pm
@Brett
Just because we (bloggers) do something most of the rest of the planet doesn’t do….does that mean we’re “COOL”?
(I mean, you could say the same thing about obsessed Trekkies).
19 August 2009, 8:32 pm
Only if *you* think that *you’re* cool.
I don’t think that Paris Hilton is cool, for instance.
But *she* does, and many people agree!
As the saying goes, “you’re only as young as you think you are” could be re-written as “you’re only as cool as you think you are”.
Attitude, perhaps. How you carry yourself.
If you think you’re mundane and boring, so you shall be in the eyes of others.
19 August 2009, 9:30 pm
Friar and Brett,
Being a blog author may be (somewhat) ahead of the pack, but it’s not cool, necessarily…
But I love the attitude idea. I think that really is it. You *are* only as cool as you think you are—and a little swagger does a world of good. Helps me get over the red-as-a-beet thing IRL, too.
Later,
Kelly
20 August 2009, 7:43 am
@Brett
Ah, Paris Hilton.
Best. Role model. Evar.
She warms my heart.
20 August 2009, 7:54 am
‘Zactly…
And that’s why I maintain that “we are cool”.
21 August 2009, 6:18 pm
Kelly,
You totally weirded me out. I was living this song this week.
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
Wife
And you may ask yourself-well…how did I get here?
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.
And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Water dissolving…and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.
And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? …am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!…what have I done?
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
I put it as my status update on Facebook and Brett’s sister was the first to comment on it. (Brett’s sister is way cool by the way) So cool I named my second kid after her.
Anyway, all the folks who comment here are genuine, honest and interesting people. Don’t beleive me? Read their blogs.
Eyeteaguy
23 August 2009, 9:19 am
Francis,
If I told you how often that song gets stuck in my head, you’d be weirded out. It’s poetry for the times, and it just keeps adding layers of meaning, doesn’t it? Same as it ever was indeed. Great one.
I agree. I’m lucky to know so many folks online who are, deep inside, just exactly who they project. And I’m very grateful for that.
Later,
Kelly