Last week I met with a wonderful lady who helps people when they need to find balance and hit periods of exhaustion. Her name is Stacey.

Stacey knows me well, we met in the school playground several years ago. I love it when I go to her ‘clinic’. She works from home, has adapted her sitting room to a clinic during the day and she lives a balanced life around her home, children, friendships and work. he is a great role model for many of us.

Last time we met she told me that she had decided to go ‘networking’ and that she had been to a ladies networking event locally in Guildford. Taking herself out of the comfort of her home life, she decided that she would investigate the ‘networks’. She said she found the ladies incredible and that their networking fever was rubbing off on her. They had confronted her about what online networking she was doing and when she said ‘none’ they persuaded her that she MUST, so she booked herself on a half day Social Media Workshop with someone in Guildford.

While she talked to me about this she had a frown on her face and her energy was very different. She appeared stressed and out of her comfort zone. On further investigation over a cup of tea I discovered that she had been taught to ‘hunt’.

Her ‘role models at the networking event were ‘hunters’ and the Social Media Course she went on was about achieving ‘transactions’. There lies the rub – this was not her, it did not reflect her values or her way of operating. We then had a conversation that changed her whole attitude, I physically saw her shoulders drop and a smile return to her face.

I said to her, the Internet is 24/7 and yes, it can be seen as a MarketPlace, this means you can ‘hunt’ like a savage 24 hours a day and never sleep, and I agreed that sadly some people are like this, a fever takes over and addiction sets in and they see their lives as a big Car Boot sale with loads of ‘punters’. I conjured up an image of a lion out hunting – imagine how exhausted it would be if it hunted all day and night… and some people do!

I explained to my friend that the online world is about being a ‘friend’ that is all, no more and no less. That when you are online you are ‘connecting’ randomly, openly and with a supportive attitude. The trouble is with it is that there are hunters and they are terrifying to their ‘prey’ and the ‘prey’ learn to hide from them.

We agreed that we all have to calm down online, this is not a 24/7 marketplace, it is a social network where business people meet and chat and share. Not where ‘prey’ are stalked and brought down.

I guess the morale of my story is be careful if you are hunting all the time online, you will destroy yourself, your energy and ultimately your ability to eat. You will also exhaust yourself and time online will be a ‘task’ and a duty to your business, rather than the way it should be – the online world should be an enjoyable part of your life, a place where you make friendships and find and give support.

I worry about the expectations of some people from this new digital world. I think it will blow up and then burn out for many people who use it and abuse it. No one can keep hunting constantly. I am sure you are not like this, but perhaps you know people like Stacey that are scared of the online world for this reason, maybe you could help them to see it in a different way.

and… perhaps this week, think about this and ask yourself – am I hunting? or am I being a friend?

warm regards
Penny Power
Founder of Ecademy and Ecademy Digital School
Learning, Networking and Business Development in the Digital Age

Follow @pennypower

Over the last 12 years of building a network I have found that I have increased my awareness, increased by connections, increased my learning, increased my global listening, increased my happiness, but I have decreased my possessions, my material property and my dependence on physical assets for security. I am now a Digital Thinker and a Digital Business with Digital Assets.

It is not easy being part of a shift, some of us can move with it and follow leaders that we trust, some of us fight it, and some of us are part of it, choosing to embed the change in our lives, embracing it and seeing its merits.

I have been reading more and more conversations around the subject of a ‘cult of less‘. The concept and reality of the new world where we can hold our possessions in the digital world and not seek the same material comforts that bind us to physical places and possessions.

As a business person I have very little paperwork around me. I hold my knowledge in the form of Blogs, Video’s and my network and I can move around the world with all my contacts held inside Ecademy, Twitter and Google.

From a leisure point of view, what do I value? My photo’s are now held electronically, so are my memories in my online diary. Do I really need a TV? I certainly don’t need a record player or library of LP’s! When we see our children go to University now, they can take their possessions in a single bag. Complete with their ipod and BlackBerry/iphone they are ‘complete’, apart from some clothes, but even those have become mineralized, clothes are not critical for self esteem in the same way that fashion has dictated someone’s belonging in the past.

Houses, are they an asset now? Do they really offer the security that they did in the past. Of course they do, if you own them, but not if they are tied to mortgages and give a monthly stress to the ‘owner’. The growth in renting is unprecedented. A liberating way to live if you have been controlled by a mortgage in the past and the fear of ‘losing’ your ‘home’, renting provides the opportunity to ‘outsource’ your property management and stress!

In 2007 Thomas and I chose to sell our family home and rent. We decided that our money would be best utilized in a different way. To adjust the family to this we went to California for 5 weeks and rented an RV (Recreation Vehicle). This was a stunning experience. As we traveled around, visiting over 20 locations, living in RV parks, we met ‘Nomadic Internet Business’ people who had decided to move around America and visit clients, run event and even educate their children on the move. They appeared to have such a sense of adventure and freedom. As a family we learned great things living like this for 5 weeks. In fact, I remember on the day we were coming home, I woke up at 4.30am, went down to the grass square in the middle of the park, sat on a long swing that was tethered to a high branch of a tree and wept. I had missed my parents, siblings and friends, but I was terrified of returning to the world of feeling trapped in a struggle to ‘survive’ rather than live. When we returned home we took with us our learning and to this day we remain more free in our minds and lives.

I guess I am writing this to give hope, I sense small businesses everywhere trying to live a life that they held dear for so many years but fighting to achieve that life in a world that is in a massive shift. This shift is not one that we can fight. We need to evolve, listen, adapt, understand our own values and think about the world we want not the world we have necessarily created. Home is always important. Your ‘spiritual home’. a place where you can relax and be yourself with people you love. Home, Sunday lunches, relaxing with family, these are my most treasured moments, but perhaps the expectation of owning and controlling your home is not realistic and not always the route to happiness.

Letting go is tough, but in letting go of some of the things that trap you can actually liberate you. I suggest you think about this ‘cult of less’. Perhaps it is just the return of the 1960′s and ‘free love’, VW Vans and the desire to escape, or maybe we are in a more fundamental change. The Digital Age and the birth of the Digital Nomad.

I write this as part of my series of Blogs about having a Digital Mindset. A Digital Mindset is ‘Open, Random and Supportive’ and shifts thinking from transactional to supportive behaviour, giving us all a new perspective on living and business.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this chage on the life that you feel is changing around you.

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People

Most of us have learned our business skills during a transactional period of history. When business was based purely on a trading relationship and the Suspect, Prospect, Customer model worked well in our marketing strategy.

The subtle change we are experiencing in the new Digital World can be very hard to adapt to for this reason. In all my speaking at events and conferences, training courses I have run, workshops I have been privileged to deliver, it is never the technology of the social media world that throws people, it is the new culture and philosophy of attracting Followers.

We have now moved into a world that is social. With this social world comes the expectation that you should actually care about the people you want to transact with. Think about this. Business now needs to be about delivering support and customer care BEFORE you transact, not just after.

The business model for this is extraordinary, we not have to build a cost of supporting our prospects as well as supporting our customers.

You can call this the Freemium model of business:

“Give your service away for free, possibly and supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc., then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base.”

I first heard of this explanation through reading Chris Anderson’s Blogs The Long Tail

Online businesses and business people are seeking ‘followers‘. People who have decided that they want to ‘sign-in’ to getting updates from the companies and individuals that inspire them. This is very powerful. a process of ‘turning strangers into friends and friends into customers‘, the brilliant journey that Seth Godin talked about in his book ‘Permission Marketing‘ which I read over ten years ago and loved.

What intrigues me is the way business people are trying to over lap their early knowledge of business and how to achieve sales onto the new models of today’s economy and the tools we now have online. Many mindsets are still transactional and so they broadcast a message as ask people to ‘tell others’ or hope that it will be retweeted across the world. I often get contacted and asked, ‘Penny, can you tell your network about this…” my thoughts always turn to ‘why would they be interested?’.

What is missing in this thought process is that to gain an advocate or a ‘follower’, which is the gold at the end of the rainbow they need to be ‘Known and Liked‘ and then perhaps, and only perhaps, they will ‘follow‘ them’. To be known takes a great deal of visibility and use of Social Media, to be Liked requires you to be engaging and interested in them through conversing within the social networking world.

But why would any one follow your financial dream or desires, as Tony Heywood so brilliantly taught the world ‘it is not about you’. He lost his job at BP for saying the famous words ‘I want my life back‘, making the ultimate error in today’s world of implying that we should care about him. I guess this statement is his legacy to the world, a moment in his life where is highlighted the need for all businesses to care only about others.

To gain followers you have to communicate a vision, a mission, a shared purpose, a dream, a goal. Something that can become a shared effort. You cannot communicate you own personal desire for money or sound remotely transactional in your desires, unless of course you are driven to build wealth for a cause.

Never assume someone should follow you, you gain real followers because you deserve them, not because you asked or you pushed. Once you have those ‘followers’ serve them, care for them and nurture them with your words and deeds, they are your biggest asset and they took time to gain, don’t lose them.

Take a look at yourself and your business and ask one thing “why should anyone else care if my business survives and is successful?” if you can see that people rely on you, your thoughts and your business for their lives to be richer, happier, improved, more fun or inspired then you have created a tremendous asset and that is the asset of ‘followers’.

If you have achieved this then I congratulate you and would like to ‘follow’ you‘.

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People

Yesterday we saw the diversity of the Blogs on Ecademy which really highlighted the Social Business aspect of this community. I was told by Demos that his social blogging brings him more lead generation that his business blogging (although that is not his only intention), and this comment from Norman Feiner this week shows the fact that some make business contacts in very obscure ways.

From Norman Feiner on his recent social Blog

So I thought we could all help people who have never Blogged to feel comfortable with doing it. It is terrifying for some people, like the first time you speak in public on stage!

So any suggestions for Blog titles and themes for people would be great today…. Throw them out in this blog – could be fun! Plus this would show the randomness of your minds (and hearts) – business and social!

This video clip I made to help people learn to Blog may also help some new people

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People

Recently I was at a Student Conference and at the end of my talk where I say ‘Friendship is the killer app for business‘, a Student put his hand up and said that he was lonely and isolated despite being friends with hundreds of people on FaceBook.

We, Ecademy, have always stood for depth of friendship. We stand for people going out of their way to help others and notice other people. Friendship is about supporting people and having a relationship that is much more than just a connection – the hype around FaceBook and Twitter needs to calm down so that people see this decade and the technology that we are exposed to as more then just futile conversations.

This article ‘ I’m free of FaceBook and it’s good to talk’

…….are the beginnig of a new rumbling…. Many have been obsessive connectors and forgotten to just be a ‘friend’

What are your thoughts, are you making more friends? Or are you just connecting?

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People

Over the past 3-4 months I have really noticed the divide between those people who have networked and those who have not.

I am staggered by the requests I get to help people learn how to build an online network, it takes up the majority of my time.

In 2003 Thomas wrote a Blog called – ‘Network or Starve‘ and this is now becoming true.

When we started Ecademy 12 years ago many of our friends were dis-interested and thought we had lost our marbles. They said we needed to get a ‘proper job’ and for years they watched the struggle of building a network, now these people are coming to us for help.

Is this a trend you have noticed among your friends?

If it is, help them, guide them and show them how to build their reputation as a friend to others, those that are not being mentored are making such enormous mistakes, they are pushing and they are selling online.

It is now so clear to us all that building a network of people that respect, understand and ‘follow’ you is a basic business task and need, however for many they are only just starting this journey and they are starving and they are lost, and critically, many are not doing it very well.

Reach out, be a friend and stop your colleagues and friends from starving, you have many people they could benefit form knowing and your understanding of this new world is something you should not hold onto, you should give it away in abundance.

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People

Prompted by Abdul Ghafoor’s Blog Too proud to Follow, Too scared to Lead… – I have written this in his honour.

with love to you Abdul… you inspire daily.

Creating followers online – you cannot force but you can empower through Servant Leadership

The amount of time spent online now by people is often disproportionate to the financial gain. This means that some are still frustratingly trying to find that magic formula for success and others are just enjoying the social interaction. I am a social business networker, I love business and I am social. I couldn’t talk business all the time, but I am driven by success in business and I am very driven by helping others to achieve financial success.

One of the advantages of being a social business networker is that I don’t judge everything by what is in it for me and what money can I make from knowing you. I input to many different Blogs, social and business ones and I connect very openly with people on many social networks, I have never judged people, I guess I am open, random and supportive!

The complexity of the online world cannot be under-estimated, it is not the technology that is confusing, it is actually the philosophy. When I train I spend at least half the time on the philosophy – you have to get the emotion of the online world before you can understand the methods and often that requires a transition in how you approach life; a significant shift can happen that not only impacts your work life but also your home.

I have always been in sales and marketing, I built my career as a Sales and Marketing person and very quickly I became a ‘leader’. I went through the ranks of being a Supervisor of a Team, to a Manager and then ultimately as a Sales and Marketing Director of a Team of 200 people. I loved it. Two things strike me when I look back and they are (1) I was never into Power and (2) I loved to see my team succeed, when someone was promoted, got a company car, bought their first house, I knew I was doing a good job for them.

I learned later, in fact 20 years later, that I was a Servant Leader. It was a member on Ecademy that wrote to me and advised me of the term and the values of a Servant Leader and they felt very comfortable for me. Servant leadership is about empowering others, it not about achieving power. I have always sought to serve. I serve my children to empower them, I serve Thomas, I serve my friends. My personally philosophy is to help others be what they have the potential to be. I have felt great freedom from this attitude in life, so long as I serve, others can achieve.

So, how does this work online?

Online you have to become Known and Liked, and when you have achieved this you may achieve a following. You can never force anyone to Follow You.

• You can ‘force’ yourself on others by broadcasting a message, through your Blog, YouTube, Google SEO – you can become known

• Some of those people that discover you though their random search or through a referral may start to like you when you engage and experience your personality

• The choice exists however as to whether they truly Follow You. To follow you they will need to feel a sentiment that you can serve them, empower them, help them achieve, heal them, solve problems – in other words they will follow you if you are a Servant Leader and once you have attracted them toward you, it is your role to serve and empower them.

So, what is it that you can solve, who do you serve, who are you empowering? and how are you doing it?

The toughest aspect of the online world is learning who you can serve, not how to sell, this is a huge shift in skills and one that I fully support.

I was sent these words though Brian Chernett of Academy of Chief Executives

Servant leadership displays the following values-

• Listening
• Empathy
• Healing
• Awareness
• Persuasion
• Conceptualization
• Foresight
• Stewardship
• Commitment to the growth of people
• Building Community

When you think of why people follow others online they usually have these qualities, their role is to ‘serve’ and to ‘empower’

So – I finish with this pledge to you:

Life is not about me, it is about YOU, and I serve YOU

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People

I have written this as a guide for new people, although I know from my training days, many people who have been trying to achieve business growth through the online world are often relieved to learn this too! I hope you enjoy and please do add your tips and thoughts, especially the sites you use and the tools that help you online.

How Social Media leads business, so long as you remember to connect

The movement from traditional marketing using media such as leaflets, websites, adverts in magazines and listings in directories such as Yellow Pages to the online world of social media has confused many people. In this article I want to help anyone who is confused by the phrases and tools of the online world and help you to feel a little more comfortable.

To begin with let’s dissect the terms Social Media and Social Networking.

Social Media is exactly what it says on the tin, it is media. You have permission to broadcast your message to inspire, teach, demonstrate and build credibility around the subject you know best. In the traditional media world this would be creating an advert, writing a PR piece for your local or national paper, doing a speech., basically anything that gets your message out from you to many. Online you can achieve this through Blogging, Video’s and uploading your PowerPoint to SlideShare for example, it is the power of the networks within around these tools and the search capability of Google that is your greatest asset online.

Social Networking on the other hand is networking. How obvious is that! It is all about having conversations with people. When you network off line you don’t broadcast, you talk, share and listen. This is the skill of social networking online. Many have forgotten this skill online and sadly they still look to push their message out rather than take time to make friends around them. Social Networking for business people happen within Twitter, Ecademy and within some FaceBook Groups.

Social Media or as I like to call it Social Broadcasting is an online skill of broadcasting your message in a non-sales manner that inspires and teaches rather than pushes a sales message. The subtlety of becoming known through building a company and personal brand online is critical. Shouts of ‘blogvert’ and ‘abuser’ can be heard in many corners of the social networking world when someone blatantly pushes their product or service through a Blog or message to their network. The trick , and it is not always easy, is to understand yourself and what value you add to others. This is a combination of your company brand (your skills) and your personal brand (your values). The personal brand is actually more important than anything as it is you that builds the trust, credibility, likability factor and ultimately represents your company .

The word ‘social’ prefixing media and networking is there for a reason, this is now a social world where business happens – IF you treat it correctly. The joy of the online world is that it is so dynamic and new. It changes everyday and new people can pass by your content 24/7, bringing you fresh opportunities. Online your thoughts never become ‘last nights chip wrapper’.

So once you have the philosophy of this world in your mind – now move to the methods:

I think the three most effective ways to be found online if you want to build trust and credibility are Blogging, YouTube Video and Twitter. These are my 3 main tools.

1. Blogging

Blogging allows me to share, teach and discuss, it is a critical part of my communication strategy. Yesterday I helped a new member write his first Blog on Ecademy, he was astounded that within 2 hours it has been viewed by 250, had been Tweeted and several people welcomed him to ecademy and added their comments. How else can you achieve this visibility in such a short time and in such a rewarding way. I love to write Blogs, they make me think of new ideas and new tips and inspiration, I love the fact they get my knowledge ‘out-there’ and the icing on the cake are the Tweets that result form the community when they like it. I have also set up my feed from Ecademy to ensure that when I write on ecademy it also goes into my personal Blog http://www.knowmelikemefollowme.com. William Buist has written a great guide for this HERE

2. Video on YouTube

Thomas and I have worked with Mark Sinclair of ybcTv to create excellent videos of opinion, sharing knowledge and teaching people.
I have a playlist for all my videos on YouTube, they serve to provide free advice to anyone who wants access to my experience and opinions. Creating quality videos around your expertise is an excellent way of becoming respected and followed online. Video’s are also highly viral and easily shared to others. I am amazed by the number of views and the random tweets and messages I get from all over thew world when people have found the, Additionally they are great to embed in Blogs and on your profile to build another dimension.

3. Twitter

Each day I add a couple of short thoughts into my Twitter status update. Throughout the day if I am online and I read something that is relevant to my ‘audience’ I will link that content to Twitter and ensure I am sharing knowledge wider than my own thoughts and opinions. Two days a go my content was re-tweeted (distributed) over 50 times, this spread my content far wider than just to my own network. Additionally while I see Goggle as a great search engine for information, I like Twitter so I can search out the people who are having the conversations that I want to be part of. I have also set up lists on Twitter that enable me to ‘follow’ people in different categories, this helps me to keep up and also helps me to Retweet the Tweets of people I respect and like.

The Internet is about ‘being found’ and that means being very visible and credible.  People look for information in many ways. They still use Google for search, but they are increasingly spending time in the social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Ecademy . While they are in these places having conversations they might trip across your thoughts. The best analogy I can give for this is to imagine there were four great social pubs and bars in your local town and you wanted to make sure that when anyone talked business your name came up in conversation when they were talking about what you supply. Network value is being talked about when you are not in the room, this is the power of great content that others like and want to be associated with. But as you all know, this does require an attitude of being Open, Random and Supportive.

The pit-falls

Social Networking was the first tool and skill used widely online. Ecademy started in 1998, followed by LinkedIn in 2002 and FaceBook in 2006. The rise of Social Media more recently has confused many people, I have watched it happen to thousands of people over the last 2 years. I can only think that because both social networking and social media are being conducted online with the use of technical tools and software people think they can do one thing for all of their needs. Remember they are distinctly different and equally critical.

There is a danger in only broadcasting and only using Social Media tools. It can make you feel you are very busy and very ‘connected’. However if you are purely making a noise then you are only marketing yourself, the jewels out there are the people who find you and then want to talk to you. These are the people that want you to move from marketing to them to talking to them. Remember Seth Godin ‘turn strangers into friends and friends into customers’.

and finally….

My final tip is, always have a method for people to find you online, create content regularly but always and add a way for them to speak to you. Add your Twitter Name, a link to your social networking profile, your email – something that allows them to easily contact you and then starting talking, sharing and make friends with them. Imagine creating an incredible advertising campaign on the side of a bus but leaving off a phone number or method of your potential customer contacting you, now that would be madness!

I hope this helps you to find clarity and reason in this mad mad world. Please do pass it onto anyone who is new to this subject and needs some context. It is pretty simple really, but for a beginner it seems so complex.

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People

I wrote this Blog last November Bye Bye Boss – Hello Clients…

and today I read this

IBM HR shake-up could see 299,000 permanent staff jobs axed

………..in the article they quote:

IBM is considering cutting three-quarters of its 399,000 permanent staff in the next seven years and re-hiring them for projects as part of an HR strategy due to end in 2017.

This is exactly the movement we believed in 12 years ago and is written in my Chapter HERE – A Changing World – The Individual Capitalist

Also consider this statement they make:

“There would be no buildings costs, no pensions and no healthcare costs, making huge savings,” they said

Bring on the Freelancer, the Self-employed, the Independent Capitalist, the Project Worker, and congratulations to Ecademy Members, you are ahead of the game in the way you build your businesses, you already know what it takes to be a 21st Century Business

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
<u>Founder-Ecademy</u>
Supporting Business People

<a href=”http://www.knowmelikemefollowme.com”><img src=”http://www.ecademy.com/images/sponsor/klf-sigbutton-v2.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Buy the Book” /></a>
Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People

Today I worked from home as I arranged for two people to come and help me with my very old windows that were in enormous need of a spring clean and with some lovely mice that I discovered in our house when they attacked all the Easter Eggs in our son’s bedroom cupboard.

OK, I hear you say, what has that got to do with us?

Well in both cases they spent 30 minutes quizzing me on how social networking would help them and of course I loved it and spent time individually with them to explain.

It was a great hour in my life today.

1. The Window Cleaner is actually learning to be an Accountant and is doing a diploma – so people are not always what they seem are they. I showed him Mark Lee’s Group for Accountants – Find an Accountant and explained how he could network with other Accountants and learn how they run their own businesses. Currently he is spending time on FaceBook and could not see the connection between the social side of FaceBook and doing business in a social way. Lesson learned when he said “but I couldn’t get to all those accountants through FaceBook”

2. The Pest Controller, a great guy who is very knowledgeable, thinks outside the box about those little pests and already belongs to a forum writing about Clay Pigeon Shooting. I explained that one day he may want to be known as a Global Pest Controller ‘ the Pest Man’, perhaps by writing Blogs and sharing his experiences of housewives and their pests he could begin to have a ‘personality’ on the internet and one day he might be invited to Dubai to help control pests in a 5 star hotel! I think his first Blog might be ‘how to teach housewives that food should not be kept in kids cupboards’!

Learning that everyone will need to have a social media presence, share their knowledge and become a known expert for something is very tough to transition to, but if we all help someone learn this each day we will help them survive and feed themselves in the future.

So that is a good day, I enjoyed it and I have created a small shift ion two more people’s lives… now that is living in the moment wouldn’t you say Sam?

Warm regards
Penny Power
+447771 543478
Founder-Ecademy
Supporting Business People