laser cut doily clock by uncommon - click image for more info
As the mother of a two year old, I am acutely aware that there is one life skill that my daughter may never really need to learn: how to read an analog clock.
I can remember many hours (days… weeks…) being spent on this important skill. Little hand, big hand, counting by fives, system of twelve. The wonders of the analog clock never cease!
Except that analog clocks are now more like quaint little treasures – accessory on a wall, bling around the wrist – than an actual tool for finding our way in time.
In fact, many have decried 2011 as the year that the mighty wristwatch would become obsolete entirely.
We exclusively access time through the interface of our digital devices: computers, tablets, and cell phones.
Time outside the network barely exists.
Our digital world has taken over a very simple, tangible part of the analog.
* * *
I graduated from college in 2004 – the year Facebook was founded. I blogged on Xanga and my first social network was a very brief experience with MySpace. I’m old school.
While I was blogging, I was fueled internally by a very external life. I was engaged in school organizations, doing deep work in theology, politically active. Ideas flowed into me via experience and flowed out of me via the net. It was a beautiful way to live. Connected.
After college and a crisis of personal faith [in myself], I stopped blogging. I was no longer connected, experientially or digitally. There was nothing to fuel me. I withdrew. It wasn’t pretty.
Craving the connection I had before, I opened an account on MySpace. It lasted a week or two. The last status update I made read something like this:
Had the most amazing first date last night!
That first date is now my husband.
I didn’t start blogging or networking again for 3 years. I needed to plug back into experience. I needed to be & feel something deeper than pixels & posts. It took me 3 whole years to rediscover the depth of my own spirit.
* * *
I’ve said before how much the phrase “in real life” bothers me. I’ve also said before how real & deeply connected I am through the relationships I’ve cultivated in my digital world.
Analog – the physical & tangible world – and digital – the electrons & code world – are very much the same to me.
To be fully alive in either, requires a profound experience of life around you.
It’s not enough to try to cover up either world with superficial relationships, well-crafted marketing messages, or feeble calls to action. We can be artificial in the analog world too.
The way you interact with the world – whether digital or analog – is a reflection of the experiences you absorb & create.
Strive to do something that matters. Plan to find love, make love, and be love. Learn and teach. Be mindful of your smallest experiences as shared stories with the wider world.
To share the experience, we must really live the experience, as it unfolds moment to moment.
— Gwen Bell, Digital Warriorship
Mindfulness is at the heart of truly enjoying the experience of life. You can go through life flying from moment to moment, never being aware of the passage of life just below your feet. Or you can experience the feeling of each moment. You can breathe in & breathe out life.
Mindfulness is critical whether you’re accessing the analog world or the digital.
Acting with compassion & kindness, leading with your passion, engaging with beauty – that’s where you’ll find “realness.” And real is never obsolete.
What experience is your digital world reflecting? What experience is your analog world reflecting
As you might have noticed, taragentile.com just got a makeover. Not just a new banner or color scheme but a whole new flavor & focus.
The “new” here is really a reflection of an evolution that’s been occurring in my business since March 2010. From January 2009 til March 2010, my business and my online presence was about experimenting with things I thought might “work.” But my definition of success was limited and my understanding of what I had to offer the world was in its infancy.
Experimenting is a brilliant way of finding your passion and your calling.
Businesses that truly thrive (not simply get by) are those that are willing to experiment. Non-profits that truly make a difference are those that are willing to try something new. People who stand out, get noticed, and help others are those who are willing to do something without the burden of perfection.
Francis Ford Coppola recently did an interview with the 99 percent. He marveled at the fact that he can still learn something every day that he works on his craft (film).
The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do.
The very idea of film, its culture, its language, its art happened only because people were willing to wing it. There was no manual. Even after thousands of years of theater and drama, this new medium required its artists to dig deep and try something that just might fail.
If you’ve gone to the movies lately, I’m sure you realize that even a hundred years later, artists are still failing every day.
Many of my ventures have failed as well. But with each failed experiment, I have come closer to expressing my art on its own terms. I have inched nearer to the goal of serving (and changing) the world with my passion.
Today, I launch this outward part of my evolution. I brand myself as an expert in DIY culture and lifestyle design. If I’m not, I don’t know who is. This is the fullest expression of my passion that I’ve achieved thus far. And if there is another step to this evolution (I’m sure there is), I welcome it with open arms.
This is how I choose to be present in the world. This is how I choose to serve you. This is how I choose to be seen by your eyes and heard with your ears.
What experiments are you willing to try to find your truth? Are you willing to fail to find what truly succeeds?
What business decisions would allow you to break out of the mold of production, production, production and into really expressing your unique talents in a more profitable way?
It’s been quite a while since I posted here. In that time, I’ve been working on major guest posts, working through an ecourse on DIY website design, and taking some time to reconnect with myself.
Also, in that time, I reached a huge milestone for my business: my first 5 figure month.
In this video, I describe the 4 factors that went into this success with the hopes that you’ll apply them to your business.
1.) Build a broad product library.
Are addressing a variety of needs for your target audience?
Have you created products at a variety of price points?
Are your products or services easy to purchase?
2.) Grow a dynamic & engaged email list.
What can you offer for free as incentive for an email sign up?
What can you deliver in weekly or biweekly commitments to your email list to keep it fresh?
How can you ask for subscriber feedback & input to create a personalized feeling?
3.) Meet the demands of your customers.
What else are you current customers demanding of you?
What need could you address tomorrow but have chosen not to?
How can you turn this into an opportunity to create massive growth in your business?
4.) Increase your influence.
Are you projecting a persona of authority in your niche?
What separates you from the best of the best?
Who is your target audience and where do they hang out?
If this sounds like a plan to you, get the next level of help & accountability in The Creative Empire. TCE is an exclusive membership site geared towards helping creative entrepreneurs succeed in today’s business environment.
And we’re running a sweet deal – but you have to hurry.
Sign up before midnight on Thursday, November 4 and receive 2 whole weeks for free. Use your trial to get answers to the problems you have right now. Form relationships with other biz owners and create partnerships. Offer assistance and build your brand profile.
My product is “nonessential.” People don’t really need it and it doesn’t solve anybody’s problems.
Everything is nonessential. And yet, everything is essential.
We walk out of big box stores everyday with things we don’t really need. Something is causing us to pull the trigger, hand over the cash. “Need” is in the eye of the beholder.
All I really need is a warm place to sleep, food in my tummy, and clean water to drink.
Yet, I need my morning latte. That’s Need with a capital N. Oh, and I need my afternoon latte too.
If you think of what you do and what you create as nonessential, it will be. But the truth of the matter is that, to your ideal customer, your product is as essential as the air she breathes. Or the latte she drinks. Either one.
If your picture of your ideal customer doesn’t include that detail, you need to redefine her.
“Essential” isn’t just about primary needs, it’s about they way someone feels, the way she interacts with you or your product, the way you rescue her from life’s minor crises. It’s up to you to position your product or service as essential. It’s up to you to find the people who can’t live without you. It’s up to you to stop making excuses about your product being nonessential or a luxury.
Tara is like having your own personal trainer. She’s a motivator. She has inspired, explained, intrigued, enabled and encouraged small businesses and, particularly, the handmade community. I don’t know where she gets her energy or prose, much less her great ideas.
– Linda, alamode stuff
The next wave – Web 3.0 – will organize itself around two different elements: context and the user.
By “context,” I mean the intent that brings you to the Web, your reason for surfing. Looking for a job is “context,” as is planning a trip or shopping for clothes.
Fundamental to context is the user. And when you fuse a specific user with genuine context, you wind up with truly personalized service.
– Sramana Mitra
Good business has always required complete context, a matrix that explains why a customer needs a product while the idea to purchase is still forming in her head.
Your business is no different, it doesn’t exist in a bubble. Whatever you’re selling has a context – information, market, events, and attitude that gives your product shape and function.
If you sell stationery, the context is correspondence, the need of the consumer to send a greeting, the protocol & formality of mailing. There’s the recipient and the occasion to consider. There’s an underlying meaning in the stationery of choice, as well. The stationer must consider and communicate this context carefully.
If you’re a consultant, the context is the business environment and the attitude of the market. The context is the experience you bring to the table and your unique perspective on the needs of the client. There is context in the goals your clients hope to achieve and the fear of failure if they don’t achieve them. Again, this context must be carefully considered & communicated.
Have you considered how context can influence a potential customer when they come into contact with your business?
creating & communicating context – related needs
Your website is the easiest way to relate context to your potential customers. Here is where you can let people know they’re in the right place. You teach them how your product interacts with their daily lives. You answer questions they didn’t know they had. You fulfill related needs.
Yes, fulfilling related needs might be the biggest piece of context you can provide. It doesn’t have to be expensive, energy-intensive, or time consuming, just fulfilling a small related need will make the customer understand the context of your unique product. The two faces of my business (this site & Scoutie Girl) are all about context. On this site, I don’t just help you run a web-based business, I help you think more critically about yourself as a business owner. I help you see needs you didn’t even know you had and then I fulfill them. Or at least I hope so. That’s what they tell me.
On Scoutie Girl, the context is how to make this new arts & crafts movement work. There’s more than just buying & selling stuff, of course. But how does that work? Who does it work for? What does it mean to sell art & buy art & consume mindfully & live creatively? People have always done these things. But there’s context – and I suss that out. You can’t create art all day – or look at art all day – without considering where it comes from, so I fulfill that related need as well.
painting the big picture
Your website – and the context it provides – allows you to paint the big picture with fine strokes & gracious details. Understanding that your website is not all about you & your business but your customer & their needs will allow you to create something that is more than a digital business card. Showing your potential customers that you understand who they are, what their needs are, and answering the questions they didn’t know they had show that you’re more than just a product to be consumed. You are a part of their lives.
That’s how you seal the deal.
That’s how you provide context for purchasing decisions, large & small alike.
Your social media outposts allow you to create even more context. How do you work in your business? How are you helping people RIGHT NOW? What do you think of the latest trends? What related needs can you address in 140 characters or less?
Your business message is about more than broadcasting your “buy me now” bulletins. It’s about creating a context for potential clients & customers to learn about, interact with, and truly discover your product.
How are you using your online presence to create the context for your business?
Tara Gentile is on a mission to turn the small business owners of today into the economic powerhouses of tomorrow. She's the creator of Quiet Power Strategy®, a business design system and entrepreneurial family. She's also the host of Profit. Power. Pursuit., which Entrepreneur named one of the 24 top woman-hosted business podcasts.
