Clarity Lab Issue 90 – Viewer Expression Advised

Hi there,

I’m back from a trip to Covidland, where I apparently got the new Megatron variant, which puts you through hell in your bedroom for three solid weeks.

Holy moly, this virus. I sure hope you’re staying healthy and covid free over there. It’s getting harder and harder to pull that off it seems.

Enough about me and covid, though. Let’s talk about you and your business.

1
Viewer expression advised.

Many of us creators are building businesses around our personality. Come to our websites and we’re open with the fact that it’s just a business of one. If your personality is your brand, though, this raises a question: how do you know where to set the “authenticity dial”? Turn the dial all the way to the left and you’re completely authentically you on your website no matter what. Turn it all the way to the right and your online presence is professional, conservative, and business friendly. So, where do you set the dial? I recently discovered a Youtube channel (which has my favorite channel name ever: Hillary and Margo Yell At Websites), and they’ve got a perfect perspective on where to set the dial in this video: Should You Be Yourself Online?

2
Instasham

There’s a lot of misconception out there in the small online business world about what social media marketing is and how to use it. My view has always been this: social media is a place to do mini content marketing with the goal of getting your followers off of your social media account and to your website, and then onto your email list. That’s it. That’s what social media for your business is for. (Well, that, and watching animal rescue videos.) Follower count, average number of likes per post, or how viral any of your posts get…none of that matters unless followers become prospects on your email list or buyers of your products or services. Josh Spector backs me up on this perspective with things you should know before you hire a social media marketing specialist.

3
The Peter Plan Syndrome

It is sooo easy for us to get fixated on becoming a particular thing, like a writer, or a multi-million dollar business owner, instead of just regularly sitting down to do the work that will get us to those places. Austin Kleon hammers this point home in 30 seconds in this part of a talk he gave in 2018, at the 9:16 min mark. Forget the noun. Do the verb.

4
Your focus needs more focus

We have rapidly moved from the “information age” into the “too much information age.” If you like learning, as I do, you could sidle up to the information bar that is the internet and drink from a firehose of knowledge 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for years on end and you still wouldn’t get through it all. (That scenario sounds like my dream life, and yes I know that’s an issue but it’s my issue and you can’t have it.) And yet, how might our lives and businesses be different if we were to act on just 1/10th of the knowledge we discover? What would life be like if we focused on just One Big Idea?

5
Stay on the bus, Gus

Most entrepreneurs I know, myself included, are idea machines. Once you figure out how to make money from one kind of business, you start seeing business opportunities everywhere. For certain personality types (hello 5’s and 7’s of the Enneagram), seeing these opportunities everywhere can lead to a lot of jumping around from one idea to the next. (I mean, I have no idea what that’s like personally…I just thought you might like to…OMG A SQUIRREL!!) This can often result in less than stellar results caused by all the starting and stopping. Here’s James Clear with a great story about Arno Rafael Minkkinen, who gave a stirring commencement speech at the New England School of Photography, about a proven path to doing unique and meaningful work.

Hope you’re staying healthy over there, and by the way, don’t go to Covidland. They really need to redesign that theme park, because the rides made me sick.

Your friend,
~Forest