Content Creator vs Writer and Public Speaker

by JimRaffel on May 16, 2012

Image of creating contentBy the time you read this, I will have changed every online profile I can find from “businessman, writer, and public speaker” to “businessman and content creator.” This refined tagline is more descriptive of what I actually do and easier to say when someone asks what I do. It’s about understanding my current position and shifting that positioning so the world has a better idea what it is I do on a daily basis.

Position and positioning

Before I start throwing buzz words around, let’s settle on a couple of definitions. For our purposes, “position” is where we currently are. Think of it as reality. You may not like it, but you and your audience know and understand your position. It’s neither good nor bad at this point. It just is. “Positioning” on the other hand is the act of shifting your position from what it is to what you want it to be. So there is not such thing as a bad position; just bad positioning.

If you are going to make the effort to shift your position, it’s important to know where you are and where you want to be. For example, I love creating content of all kinds. That can be blog posts like this, videos, public presentations and even private, small group presentations for our customers. While that can all be called content creation, the terms writing and public speaking don’t encompass all I do. My position is content creator, yet I was telling the world I was a writer and public speaker. That means my positioning statement was inaccurate.

Align your position and purpose

Your purpose is what drives you. It’s what makes you want to get out of the bed in the morning and kick some ass on a daily basis. On a personal level, my drive is to stay self-employed for the rest of my life so I can be a disruptive innovator without having to justify myself to others. One level down from that purpose is my current business goal of promoting open color systems in which no one business or individual “owns” color. It’s a color democracy of sorts.

A lifelong purpose of disruptive innovation requires that I spend a great deal of time evangelizing change. That requires communication and communication requires content creation. Putting it all together, lifetime self-employment dictates that I be a decent businessman, and being an evangelizing disruptive innovator requires that I be a content creator.

Labels vs positioning statements

If you are like me, then you are not a big fan of labels. A personal tagline is a type or label, but it’s a necessary one. If you can’t tell people who you are and what you do, how on earth do you ever expect them to want to work with you?

What’s your current position and is your positioning statement properly reflective of that position?

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Why disruptive innovation means
telling people it is time to change

by JimRaffel on May 14, 2012

image of innovation

Telling people what they want to hear and what they already believe to be true will not inspire action. Promoting new thinking and ideas requires you to tell folks what they may not want to hear or even believe.

Selling a new concept

Think about the early days of social media. Ten or even 15 years ago, not very many people thought blogs and online chat (which is what Twitter really is) would change the way we communicate both personally and professionally. Sure Twitter, Facebook and WordPress are only tools; but they are tools that quite frankly changed the world.

Your product may not have as big a potential footprint as FaceBook or Twitter; but if it’s innovative and challenges the current paradigm you are going to face the same challenges these technology startups once faced. You need to explain to the potential audience for your good or service why they would want to change the way they currently do whatever it is your technology is going to give them a better way to do.

In the case of FaceBook, Twitter and WordPress, that meant showing that communication could have greater reach over the internet. Communication could be richer and multi-channel. For some, that could just be knowing that with an internet connection you’d never have to feel alone again. I’ve utilized social media tools to build support groups that have helped me change my life. That’s a powerful message you don’t achieve without getting folks to think outside the current box they are living in.

Disruptive Innovation

The changes social media have made to human communications are disruptive in nature. For example, phone calls have become less important and fax machines virtually unneeded. When you are part of the disruptive innovation process, you need to let people know change is coming. You also need to let them know that this change is for the better and will change their world in big and small ways.

I’m lucky to be in the middle of some disruptive innovation right now. We spent three days last week sharing a message that many may not have wanted to believe or hear quite yet. In every case however, they listened and responded positively. The message worked because we presented it along with a higher purpose. We were sharing a way to fix something in our industry that is broken.

Think about human communication. It’s still broken, but I feel social media makes it better. When used correctly we can create virtually instant conversations including hundreds or even thousands of people. We’ve democratized the dissemination of information. No longer do media outlets have a stranglehold on the distribution points of knowledge. Sure that means we have to do more vetting ourselves but I’m up for the task and I sure hope you are too.

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Big Hairy Audacious Obstacles

May 7, 2012

I just returned from the Successful Online Business Conference (SOBCon) and I have far too many takeaways to even try and share them all in one post. Instead, on the drive home today I searched for the most significant takeaway; the one that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Big Hairy [...]

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You can’t scale yourself, but you can scale a brand

May 4, 2012

You are difficult to scale. A brand you create, on the other hand, is fairly easy to scale. Don’t get me wrong. It’s cool having a blog with my name on it, but you come here to read me, not guest posts. On the other hand, those who visit the ColorMetrix blog are looking for [...]

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How an innovative product opens sales doors for you

May 2, 2012

Finding an innovative problem solver The trick to finding an innovative problem solving piece of technology is to watch trends in your chosen industry. For example, right now I’d love to be a salesperson for a company making high definition, low-energy flat panels displays of a size suited for mobile devices. In hindsight had I [...]

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The value of thinking

April 30, 2012

In business there are two main activities: thinking and doing. There is a tendency to place too much value on doing and not enough value on thinking. People like doctors and lawyers, who first and foremost we perceive as thinkers, bill for their services by the hour or procedure. Most value exchange occurs based on [...]

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The WordCamp experience comes to Milwaukee

April 27, 2012

If you are in any way connected to the digital scene, there is probably no better way to spend $20 than buying a WordCamp Milwaukee ticket. That $20 will get you two full days of learning and sharing WordPress-related knowledge. You’ll get that and a pretty cool after party Shelby and I are planning. It’s [...]

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Selling and a sense of urgency

April 25, 2012

If you read the title and thought you’d find information about how having weekly, monthly and annual sales goals keeps you pushing and working, that’s not this post. I’m talking about the sense of urgency you have to instill in your own team. There are always three sides in a sale I suspect you’re thinking [...]

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How a hiatus helped me get my groove back

April 23, 2012

It’s been about four weeks since I published a post here. I’m just going to spill why and hope it makes sense to you and that you can take a nugget or two away to use in your own life and business. At the end of March, I was overwhelmed. I’d bitten off more than [...]

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Hiatus

March 28, 2012

You might have noticed that I didn’t publish a post on this site last Friday or Monday of this week. There’s a good reason for that. At the moment my schedule is what can only be described as “over-booked,” and my content creation skills are required in other areas of my professional life. Letting go [...]

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