I have a bunch of points to make.
They need numbers.
But they’re really only in the order I dictate them to Stu (short for “work, you stupid piece of crap!” which is what you say a lot when you use voice-to-text software to save your arms) because I can’t be bothered to move them.
Okay. Ready.
- If you’re making it hard for me and my duck to tell the smart, interesting people we know about the cool thing you do, everyone loses.
- It’s not good for you because we don’t find out about your cool thing.
- It’s not good for your potential Right People who need your cool thing.
- It’s not good for me because I don’t get to be a connector mouse. And being a connector mouse makes me happy.
- When I say “tell the smart, interesting people I know about your stuff”, I mean the ones who read my blog (hi!), follow me on Twitter, or hang out with me “in real life”.
- Maybe these people are in the general Fluent Self orbit and maybe they’re not. But they tend to be good people and I like them.
- There are a lot of them.
- And when I talk about telling people “about the cool thing you do”, I mean whatever it is you talk about. Or write about. Or think about. Or are occasionally inspired to paint about. It doesn’t matter. There is you-ness involved.
- And I really, really like sharing good stuff I find with my people.
- Like the amazing homemade good-for-you face cream I got from Lauren at DressGreen. Or words of wisdom from Black Hockey Jesus. Or Leah’s painting.
- There are two ways you can make it hard for me to tell people about you.
- You can hide. Or you can do something that makes me not want to tell people about you.
- Hiding means that I don’t have anywhere to send people so they can find out more about the cool thing you do.
- Some ways of hiding are more obvious than others. Like, if you don’t have a website, you’re kind of hiding (I know, sweetie. You’re working on it. No worries). Or you’re not on Twitter yet. Or you’re there, but you aren’t talking to anyone.
- But there are other ways to hide. Maybe you have a site but there’s no way to subscribe to a noozletter or an RSS feed or something so that I can remember to go back there.
- Someone who used to hide that now — gott sei dank — I can tell you about: the wonderful Janet Bailey who writes about mindful time management, among other things. Brilliant. Useful. Tremendously reassuring.
- Of course I don’t worry about the hiding too much because hiding is natural and normal. Just like avoidance. You’ll come out and play when you’re ready.
- What I worry about a bit more is the people I want to tell you about but don’t.
- Like this guy who does Celtic chanting stuff. I freaking love it. But he’s overtly — and even weirdly — self-promotional on Twitter. Even relative to the sleaze-non-sleaze kosher marketing continuum. Not because he’s sleazy. He’s totally not. He’s just doing it in the wrongest way, so I can’t tell anyone to follow him.
- Or like this potter from Michigan who makes the most stunningly gorgeous ceramic pieces. I have two pitchers and a vase of his. And am lusting after some bowls. Will probably order this week.
- Normally I’d send everyone I know to him because his stuff is amazing and I love to support small, local do-it-yourself-ers and craft-ey people and Etsy people.
- But if I send people to follow him on Twitter, they won’t. Because he is always promoting his stuff and not hanging out.
- I know, I could just send you to his Etsy page, but if you’re not in the mood to buy something right this second, it’s a lot easier to hook you up with someone’s Twitter feed and then you can get to know him over time.
- My goal in all of this is to try to get people to be less strategic, not more strategic. Beyond knowing the basics.
- I should also add that if you’re thinking about taking my course with Pistachio on the strategy of not being strategic (aka how to use Twitter magic to get people to care about your cool thing without being manipulative, weird or not seeing results), well, now is a good time to sign up.
- Also, we moved the “last chance for the early bird price” all the way to this Saturday to give you an extra couple of days.
- Because I was in Lake Tahoe for four days this week and forgot to be here and tell you about it.
- Not because I was hiding. Though sometimes hiding is fun. More because I like you.
- Who this class is for: Oh, people who enjoy Twitter but aren’t making money there (and aren’t willing to start being an asshat in order to do so — good for them!).
- It’s also for people who don’t yet have a Thing-to-promote-in-a-non-icky way, but will eventually.
- Also people who want to grow their cool thing organically but not have to talk about it very much. People whose natural inclination is hiding. People who feel uncomfortable about promoting anything.
- We won’t try to make you change who you are. We’ll just help you feel more comfortable being who you are so that you can get the results without the horrible side-effects of having to hate yourself.
- Who this class is NOT for: People who think Twitter is a huge waste of time. We have enormously useful information to give out. We’re not going to convince people that yeah, it’s important.
- If you need convincing that Twitter is potentially useful after I told you how I make over a third of my income on Twitter without following a bunch of strategies or promoting anything out loud, probably not a good fit.
- I am an introvert.
- I have no interest in teaching you (or anyone) how to sell. I’m interested in teaching you what to do so that you’ll never have to.
- And talking about what you need to do so that you won’t need to hide but you’ll still feel safe.
- And what to do so that I will be inclined to send a chunk of Right People your way and feel good about it.
- Deadline for the Early Bird price is in a couple days. Saturday.
- No, I won’t be manually putting the price back up to what it should be. It happens automatically because
technology is awesomeI have mad geniuses on my Pirate Crew. - Oh, right. I should give you a link for the Strategy of Not Being Strategic course.
- Will see you here tomorrow, either way. Am planning on writing about what to do when external criticism triggers internal criticism. But we’ll see. Am willing to be surprised.
- I probably made some mistakes with the numbering because I pretty much can’t count and Stu really can’t count.
- I was going to end with 42 because it’s the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything but that totally didn’t work because I can’t stop talking.
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44 is a Very Good Number. 🙂 Especially when there are 43 scrumptious nuggets of yumminess before it.
Love and hugs,
Hiro
Hiro Bogas last blog post..Flourishing at the tideline
I like your approach. I despise “selling” and am not very good at self-promotion. I do like to interact, though and I’ve found it takes time, but that through building relationships on twitter on on my blog, I am able to find people who invariably decide to stick around…
As for those Twitterers who send self-promoting tweets all day. UGH. I feel like the guy on the insurance commercial but instead of saying “approved” “approved” I say “unfollow” “unfollow”
carmas last blog post..Hunger Strike or Publicity Ploy??
Twitter is a cocktail party, not a Tupperware party.
At a cocktail party it’s great to *mention* what you do, but the point is to have fun and make friends, not move Tupperware.
Ever met someone in real life who can only talk about work and can’t talk about fun stuff like music or books? Seems like they have a big hole in their personality right?
Nathan Bowerss last blog post..Friday Screenshots of Doom: “Facebook is Evil” Edition
Yes! Good stuff. I don’t struggle with Twitter (I don’t think!) it seems a good fit for me. Same with blogging. Like you, it does make me sad when I want to promote someone but they are over there on the internets not using their indoor voice. I fall in thrall with vibe, with spirit, and I want the whole package when I decide to shop with someone.
Lizs last blog post..Making my own hang tags
Wow I freakin’ love it! How on earth did I find & follow you – I’m hooked!
44 is a very good number too plus I love the logic
checking out the strat.. not st..
Thanks =)
I’m still getting used to the whole Twitter thing. And since I’m in transition in my life, in a big way, I don’t really have a “thing” to promote yet anyway. I guess I’m hoping that I’ll start making connections so that I can figure out what I can offer that people will need and want. And then I’ll have a “thing.” And thanks to you, I’ll know how not to sell it.
Jessicas last blog post..So maybe Blogging Rule #1 wasn’t such a good idea . . .
I’m so in! Growing my cool thing organically and promoting it in a non-icky way is exactly what I’d like to see happening when said cool thing will finally be up and running. Making you feel like sending a chunck of Right People my way? That would be a dream come true! (and I’m saying this while trying to ignore the little voice that says “forget it, your so-called cool thing won’t ever be cool enough for that to happen” – argh, those little voices can really be mean!)
Josianes last blog post..A bluesy version of the Ramayana
I FINALLY signed up and started Twittering. I’m @joyfulmess.
And Havi? I hold you almost entirely responsible. ;o)
Michelle Russells last blog post..Sam, Dandelions, and the Pursuit of Perfection
Once upon a time, I had an autographed copy of HHGTTG. It got destroyed in a flood. Very sad. In the early 1990s I emailed with Adams about his (then) upcoming Dirk Gently books and about the screenplay (which Disney ultimately bought and did bad things to).
Sorry. Just had to share that with someone who might appreciate it.
Ooh ooh! I have an idea for YOU, as I read all your wonderful ideas (thank you) – when you make those links in the text, you should make them open a NEW WINDOW because otherwise, I will probably go to the link, explore, and quite possibly never get back to you!!! NEW WINDOWS, BABY!!!
I think it’s hard twittering because I’m in this weird life transition phase where I only care about what I’m going to be doing: poetry. But some of my work mates would rather I was twittering about their big passion: foot care. This is why I am leaving my job to go to grad school and try to be a poetry professor because while I love how passionate my work mates are about preserving people’s mobility by making sure they get the right fitting shoe and the correct arch support orthotic, it’s just not my thing. So right now I feel inauthentic twittering about foot care, but guilty twittering about anything else. So I’m stuck. Funny thing is at the end of the month that issue will resolve itself and probably transform into an entirely new issue about whether or not my work mates will think poet me is freaky and flighty.
This is probably entirely too much information, but it’s been one of those need to explain myself to the world kind of days.
The world is definitely not impressed with me today, I’ll tell you that.
Keely H.s last blog post..Road Trip Songs Mix CD
@Keely – Yay, poet Keely! Yay for knowing what’s important to you! And to hell with twittering about foot care. That sounds like a nightmare. I love that you can appreciate someone else’s passion without having to be in it. That’s a useful quality.
(And anyway poet you is the same you as shoe you, it’s just different glimpses of you … so I’m sending the hope that things fall into place comfortably)
@Jessica – that’s fantastic. And the nice thing about Twitter (for me, at least) is that it can reflect a lot of parts of you, so being in transition is fine.
There’s definitely no need to have a “clear focus” (despite what all the boring strategists say). It’s perfectly okay to give people a broader sense of your personality while still having no idea yourself where you’re at or what you do.
When I first got on Twitter, I was still deciding if I wanted to blog or not and if I was going to out myself as a deep, crazed yogi or not. So I was just me and then I met people and we clicked, and later I had the blog and they came to visit me here. 🙂
@Liz – their indoor voice! I ADORE you. That is so, so great.
@Nathan – ahhhh … that was the sound of the perfect, perfect metaphor. YES. *clink*
@
“Am willing to be surprised.”
The whole post is brilliant, but for some reason that sentence is the one that stood out to me.
Probably just where I am today, wanting to be more open to life (or whatever non-cheesy way there is to say that).
Applies to Twitter un-strategy, too, since if you join Twitter thinking you have it all figured out, you’re bound to make an acetyl of yourself.
So, yes, be willing to be surprised.
Ms. Havi, You know what stinks about your blog and your tweets – They drive me crazy. The words are good — quite good — but darn it, there is always that non-verbal voice in my head that also reads your stuff and keeps motioning, “See?! Did you see that? That stuff there that is behind those words. That is what I’m talking about.”
And then I realize that “it” is a cross between people, and caring, and technology, and one’s own strengths . . . then that damn dolphin comes by and completely ruins my non-verbal voice in my head train of thought. Arghh.
But like those 3D pictures, I’m continuing to cross my eyes just a bit to see that stuff behind the words.
Thanks for your words, I look forward to arriving at the next level of all of this.
Dave Thurstons last blog post..Rerun
I of course had to read a post titled “42” written on the eve of my 42nd birthday. It’s a sign, I know. I am probably even more convinced of this since I just watched the season finale of Lost, and everything’s a sign on that show.
Even though the list was really 44, I still think I was meant to read your post. And I thoroughly enjoyed it, as always.
I look forward to doing my best at not being strategic. Sounds like a plan!
Heather Mundells last blog post..Cultivate a Burning Desire to Reach Your Career Goals
I’m in on the class!
…But I didn’t read the part about putting your Twitter handle in the Notes section until after I had purchased. Foo.
I’m @getsorted, in case that’s any help.
Catherine Cantieri, Sorteds last blog post..Listen to me talk about organizing!
You’re so good to me, Havi Brooks. What have I done for you lately? Nothing! What can I do for you?
Black Hockey Jesuss last blog post..What To Do About That Python In Your Head
Hey Havi,
Mark Silver raves about you, we may have briefly brushed paths in the tent and I think I’m following you on twitter, but it’s not happening for me there – with you – probly cos of the time diff.
I had this orgasmic night on twitter the other night when it was all happening. But I had to stay up til 3am for it.
I gotta find more cool Aussies to follow.
Anyway, purpose of this comment is actually a question. I was trying to explain the benefits of twitter to my caringly sceptical husband earlier today and he asked me “who do i know who is making money out of it?”
I “get” how it works. In Mark Silver language, I see that it’s an awesome First Journey tool, in terms of bringing people into a sphere. BUt he’s asking me (as a self emplyed mum with less than 3 days a week to build my business) about my ROI on time spent on social media forums. Fair enough.
So, um, can you give me an example of WHO is making WHAT using twitter to spread the word of their business? (If you filled a class primarily through tweets, that would do…)
He was also questioning, with all the “spam followers”, people out there scooping for business, and people out there to just be social… where are the potential clients? What does it really mean then to have, say, 10000 followers?
…Or don’t it work like that?
(I hope I don’t sound like a sleazy money-hungry twitterhead with this question! I’m honestly not. If I was, I wouldn’t have called my business “Soul Business”… And Mark wouldn’t have recently dubbed me “Woo Woo Girl” 🙂 )
But I am a twitter newbie. So I appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks, Yollana
Yollanas last blog post..How to avoid feeling like a fraud when you’re good, but not perfect.