Connection Economy

Connect To Connect To Connections

Garth Beyer

Yesterday I participated in a Twitter chat that a dear friend of mine put together.

For some it was their first Twitter chat, for others, far from their last. #cxchat is where connectors, entrepreneurs, creatives and makers share resources on topics such as networking, relationship management, professional growth, and community development.

Hosted by Michelle, she came up with a question every ten minutes that introduced a new topic. Rather than going through my reaction to the chat, here are three notes I really want to make.

1.

2. (What I believe is) the most powerful moment of the chat – when Karthik tweeted “Knowledge is on wikipedia, what’s not is the courage to apply it.”

3. You can find the #cxchat summary here.

Oh, yes. Can’t end without saying that Michelle will be putting on another #cxchat Tuesday the 11th at 4:00p.m. eastern time.

 

Stay Positive & Looking For Role Models?

Garth E. Beyer

*Yes, number 1 was left blank because I was speechless. Speechless that there really are people out there that want to connect with you, hear your ideas, share them, nurture them, and encourage you in return for your encouragement. There are people who are not looking to make it big, but working to make it – whatever “it” is into something remarkable. I’m speechless because after connecting with these impresario’s, they connected me to even more.

Looking for team members!

Garth Beyer

The other day I caught myself with Twitter opened up to interactions. I was sitting and waiting for someone to interact with me. I would tweet an interesting idea or question and wait for someone to notice, someone to reply. Boy, was I doing it wrong.

After realizing this, I switched back to my Twitter feed and started interacting with others. In minutes I was in the middle of conversations with a handful of people.

It seems that on Twitter – and in life, really – more people sit and wait rather than seek what they want out. Often times, what you are waiting for, is more or less, exactly what hundreds, thousands, millions of others are waiting for. Almost everyone I interacted with obviously had there interactions tab opened, waiting for someone to reply.

People seem to be classified as one of two people: either you move or you wait.

This blog post is about a little of both.

A partner and I are getting together a team of creative, passionate, and communicative people. Some ideas we will be producing this summer is a community art event where everyone can be an artist, as well as an online news website where people can go to discuss ethics in regard to recent events, e.g., Boston Bombings.

We are based in Madison, Wisconsin, so first, if you do not live in Madison, I would like you to share this post with anyone who does that you think would have interest in participating. We are very open to ideas and odd talents. If you do live in Madison, right on!

Secondly, I want to note that if you want to be part of the team and do not live in Madison, that’s not a problem! Obviously, we will need tech and organization tasks fulfilled. In this world, distance no longer prevents the important work of getting done. We need you.

Ethics, Energy, And Enigma

We aim to create a positive enigma. We plan to puzzle people in a way that they wonder why people have not put on events like ours before, or surprise people by connecting them with other like-minded people they have been waiting for. Through this transfer of energy, we will make a ruckus that leaves a ripple effect into the thoughts of everyone involved. The way one views the world will be brightened and we are changing the way ethics are influenced in this post-industrialistic connection economy. It’s the time of the creative class. It’s the time to stop waiting and start moving. We are here.

You can get in touch with me through email at: thegarthbox@gmail.com

 

Stay Positive & Be Bold

Garth E. Beyer

 

Unlocked Potential Series

Garth Beyer

In a world of give-and-take, two-way streets, and a general goal of balance, I have come across some remarkable people who dance on both ends of the stick.

The middle of last year, I began writing an Unlocking Potential series. While the process was to mention people who were… well, worth mentioning, the goal was to unlock more of their potential through sharing their story, their personalities, and their creations.

It was an instant success with some interviews hitting over 1,000 views in one day.

Seeing Vanilla Ice

Walking down State Street, I saw Vanilla Ice starting a fight with – what appeared to be – an innocent bystander. Ice pushed the gentleman’s face and kept shouting at him. (I call the bystander a gentleman because he did not fight back, he was passive, true to the title of bystander.) Ignoring the forceful push-to-the-face and spit of vulgarity, he started to dial 911.Vanilla Ice then started walking away with his posse.

Of course this wasn’t really Vanilla Ice, but it sure did look like him. (Blame Google for not coming out with Google Glass sooner. Vanilla Ice was an early idol of mine, you’ll have to take my word that it looked like him.)

The world is filled with opposites, and the reason I mention this experience is to provide contrast to the next experience.

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Tyler (spiderman) and Adam AG (rapper)

While there are those who need a little nudge to unlock their potential, other’s are already an open treasure chest. Tyler Babb (T-Babb Films) and Adam (Adam AG) are two of these people. And in light of that, this is more of an unlocked potential series than anything else.

In one scene, I see Vanilla Ice throwing his credibility and respect away. The next I am face-to-face with Tyler and Adam – two people who see the bigger picture.

And that’s no filming pun.

Unlocked Potential

There was no need for me to do any convincing when sitting down with Tyler and Adam, if anything, they were convincing me that I’m not the only one with this mental attitude of positivity, work ethic, and attainable success. Some repeated comments were:

  • Take steps
  • Work hard on what you love
  • Skip the general bullfeces
  • Take things seriously
  • Connect all you can

Most significantly, we’re in a revolution; for the first time, a revolution we know we are in.

In the past – regardless of the economical or political situation – there were credible idols in every niche saying, “There has never been a better time than now.” And they were right.

The difference between then and now isn’t that we no longer hear this uplifting phrase, rather, as opposed to the past, we actually believe it.

The past who preached that “the best time is now” had to convince their audience. Now, speaking for the current generation:

We’re not ignorant. We know that we have everything on the shelf, all the resources, tools, and assistance that we could need. We know that all that we need to do is pick and choose out of what is available, to create. We don’t need convincing that now is the perfect time to do something. What we need is someone to teach us how to be creative enough with all the potential at our fingertips to make and do things that one day we will look back on in awe and jaw-dropping amazement.

The reason I write about Tyler and Adam is that they are the teachers – not waiting for someone to help them fulfil their dreams and bringing as many as possible up with them.

 

Stay Positive & Self-taught And Ready To Inspire

Garth E. Beyer

The Death Of Fine Print

Garth Beyer

Let me correct myself real quick: Fine print isn’t dying, but companies, businesses, non-profits who use it are. Death by Fine Print.

Fine print is like the Overly Attached Girlfriend meme, except, it’s not funny.

Fine print is a safety net, a terrible but acceptable excuse, a scapegoat to those who are building an emailing list of people whose expectations they know they cannot fill.

Fine print is like making a promise with your fingers crossed. Void, but only you know it.

If there’s fine print to any contract, any agreement, any deal, then there is a clear case of soon-to-be trust issues on the consumers end. Likely showcasing that the business is built on profiting from one-time consumers instead of repetitive investing tribe members.

Through the industrial revolution fine print was acceptable, in some cases, honestly necessary due to the risk of using machines rather than people to create what the economy and America needed. Businesses were not built on connections other than the ones you had to your right and left on the assembly line.

That has changed, yet, somehow, fine print is being used (poorly used) in the post-materialistic, post-industrialistic, economy that was built on peer-to-peer connections, not commercialism. And here is where the problem lies. Not really the problem for you or I (unless you’re still using fine print), but for businesses who think they can save their integrity with a tiny clause.

They can’t. Not when trust, connection, and interaction is what makes them money.

 

Stay Positive & I’m A Millennial And Still See The Value Of A Handshake

Garth E. Beyer

It’s More Than Just PR

Garth Beyer

Businesses, I want to emphasize before I continue, businesses – not people, not small groups, not just customers – but entire businesses are slowly finding ways to connect with people.

Prior to this current era of connection economy (coined by Seth Godin) that we are in, businesses stayed away from political movements, from activist groups, from “the touchy subjects” that spread across America.

Now, we are seeing businesses – who employ thousands of people – take a stance. Most recently for gay marriage. These businesses understand that customers are no longer customers, they are friends, and friends stick together. And when you have a group of friends, friends bring in more friends to the group. Whereas, customers rarely do.

When businesses become more human than industrialistic, not only are profits made, but something miraculous happens – public change.

There has never been a better time for businesses to take a stand for what they believe in, to show they are human, to forget trying to appeal to the mass and connect with the smaller association of people who provide 80% of their profits anyway.

It will probably piss some people off, but anything important and worthwhile usually does.

What’s Next For Internet

Garth Beyer

You already know my obsession with questions. (No? click here) So when I was asked a question that I had no immediate answer for, that I had to really sit down and ruminate on, I got excited.

A phenomenal freelancing reporter and great friend of mine, David Douglas, had asked me what I thought was next for Internet. Well, here is my response.

What’s Next For Internet

Better question is what new way can we connect more? People have yet to completely open up.

Since the digital revolution began in the early 90’s, a stigma has grown around face-to-face interaction. Even though we feel more and more connected online, people still have a difficult time connecting in person. Despite this setback, our minds remain open, we’ve become natural learners, and we continue to discover the extent of the simultaneously happening information revolution.

What’s next for the internet is based on our next need, desire, and the demand which I can tell you in a moment. First let’s look at how we started and where we are now.

– We began with individuals creating specific content for small groups.

– Then individuals began creating general content for a general audience.

– Then groups began creating specific content for other similar groups.

– Then we entered the age we are in now – the age of mass: mass groups creating mass content to other mass groups.

With recent years, the internet – side by side with the mass – has developed individuals who are creating specific content to specific groups, essentially connecting, creating tribes.

What’s next for the internet is what will assist us in partnering, grouping, and associating more than ever to create ultimate forms of content. Not just any content – content created for the peculiar, the individualized,  the artists. The internet has provided us unlimited information and it has provided us unlimited connection, but it has yet to harmoniously combine the two.

Of course, it’s not just about creating a medium that synchronizes information and connection, it’s also about creating more new groups to continue the cycle. What comes next won’t be something that can be monopolized when its goal is to continuously reproduce more of its kind.

Internet will have to morph into a medium where small groups get together to build on each others content with the assistance of other groups – not necessarily growing with them because they are focusing on a new idea already, but assisting in their artistic growth. It’s about the associated life in which the goal is to exit, meaning that the goal is to develop a new group, a new tribe.

It’s not just a melting pot of special people and great ideas, it’s artistic alchemy.

 

Stay Positive & What’s Next For Internet Can Be Predicted, What Will Be Produced From It, I Can’t Even Begin To Imagine

Garth E. Beyer