 |
|
|
|||||
In todays world, the villain in our story isnt a person; its our desire for instant gratification. Explosive sales growth? We want it now. An dream angel investor? We want it now. A raise, a promotion, a spot at the top? We want it now. Can you blame us? If we can binge-watch an entire season of a new show on Netflix in a weekend and order restaurant-ready food to our door in less than thirty minutes, that can set us up for unrealistic expectations about getting other things quickly, including in the workplace. The need for speed leaves us rushing and impatientand it shows in the way we speak, too. Our conversations become transactional, our questions become shallow, and our communication prevents us from building trusted relationships with those around us. If you’re nodding your head, I invite you to consider three conversation-killers to avoid. 1. Conversation domination Two words: talk time. If the amount of time youre talking is more than the person youre communicating with, youre dominatingand it can be detrimental. If youre using the precious commodity of time to push your agenda, solution, or unsolicited viewpoint on somebody without solicitation, youre talking at them, not with them. Often, we dont even know were doing it. Plus, when we’re housing nervous energy, we can unknowingly engage in conversation domination as a way to soothe our internal discomfort. The solution? Create a personal practice to ground yourself before every high-stakes conversation so you can experience more clarity, calm and presence. For example, if youre in a season of feeling time-poor, try the physiological sigh. A technique that was discovered in the 1930s to help us rapidly regain control from feelings of stress or anxiety, simply take two deep inhales through your nose and one long exhale through your mouth with pursed lips. Almost instantly, youll experience less tension and a sense of presence. Repeat it a few times if needed. This will help you catch yourself in the act or prevent conversation domination altogether. 2. Trying to be interesting instead of interested Dale Carnegie once said something along the lines of, To be interesting, be interested. Heres how I see it: in any given conversation, your job isnt to make yourself look significant; its to make the person opposite you feel significant. But how do you do it without feeling contrived? Consider conscious questions, which as I define it, are questions that are grounded in positive intentionality. For example, you could walk past your colleague and say, Hey Mark, how are you? Or you could say, Hey Mark, you mentioned the other day that you were stressed because you had to take care of your sick son while preparing for that big keynote. Hows he doing? How was the speech? Do you see the difference? The former lacks depth. The latter is a meaningful question that exhibits intention. Do this right, and youll show others how youre interested in what theyre emotionally invested in. 3. Being attached to an outcome Whether youre in a job interview, a sales call, or a meeting with leadership, the stakes can be high. But if you enter any of these conversations attached to a specific result, youre likely to act inauthentically. Your body language, tone, rate of speech, energy, and more will unconsciously map to your need for an outcome (and often rushing to a specific timeline). That can undermine your communication. Say youve set a professional goal of landing a promotion within the next twelve months. Fast-forward eleven months, and there you are, sitting in a meeting with leadership, discussing a potential promotion. Instead of asking intentional questions, deeply listening, and being truly present, the timeline in your mind has you feeling pressured, impatient and or reactiveand others can tell. You sabotage your own success. Heres an alternate approach: Ask yourself, If I were overflowing with abundance in every area of my life, how would I behave in this moment? Once you remove your attachment to an outcome, you create an openness to receiving what is truly meant for you, even if its not in the time or path you desire. What this means for leaders If an organization wants to build a high-trust culture, increase employee engagement, and create a sense of belonging for their people, it begins with leadership learning how to have conscious conversations. The key lies in embodying the behavior you want others to exhibit. Psychologist Albert Banduras social learning theory (SLT) suggests that people learn new behaviors by observing and imitating others. Simply put: when we observe the consequences of other peoples behavior, were more likely to imitate the actions that are positively rewarded and avoid those that are punished. In turn, this leads to an acquisition of knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. If leadership embodies conscious, non-transactional communication, and rewards others for following suit, this will create change at scale, and a high-trust culture will diffuse as if through osmosis. The byproduct? Long-term success thats built on the right foundation. In a remote-first world, we can solve problems, build teams, and maintain relationships from behind a screen. But thanks to those very screens, human connection and communication matter more than ever. The leaders who will stand out are those who prioritize them. Adapted from Relationship Currency by Ravi Rajani. All rights reserved.
Category:
E-Commerce
We are cooked. That’s the sentence I see with every AI-generated Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube short made with Seedance 2.0. And yes, we are. The walls of reality have finally vanished, sucked in by a black hole of Nvidia chips. So I’m going to Nancy Reagan the hell out of everyone and demand a global public service announcement like that old Just Say No to drugs campaign, which was everywhere when I was growing up. We need Mr. T back to make young and old fools listen up, because the companies printing money with their generative video tech are doing zilch to fix the planetary problem they have created. The message? Everyone should stop believing everything that moves online. Or at least question it all with a critical mind. All the time. It will be hard. Probably impossible. The instant satisfaction of buying into whatever candy social media throws at us, algorithmically tuned to support our preconceived ideas, is too much to resist. We want to believe because dopamine is so yummy. And the digital overlords of Silicon Valley and Beijing know it. Thats why they have officially trampled our already fragile grasp on the truth with the release of models capable of manufacturing clips that are indistinguishable from physical life. AI models like ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 can wolf down up to a dozen reference filesimages, audio tracks, and camera movement samplesto flawlessly synthesize an alternate reality with no uncanny valley. And it costs only pennies do so. We have effectively handed the keys to the multiverse to any basement-dwelling sociopath with a Wi-Fi connection. Tal Hagin, an information warfare analyst, told Euronews exactly where we stand: We are no longer at the stage where it’s six months away. We are already there: unable to identify what’s AI and what’s not. The same computer industry that has destroyed the space-time fabric has failed to deliver its Content Authenticity Initiative, which promised a way to certify and label truly real videos. Imagine that. So someone needs to educate people to doubt everything they see online. If you think Im exaggerating the immediate danger, just look at the circus of Nicolás Maduros capture by U.S. Special Forces in January. There was no Seedance 2.0 then (less than two months ago!), but social media was instantly paralyzed by a flood of highly realistic, completely believable AI-generated images of the ousted Venezuelan leader. Across X, TikTok, and Instagram, synthetic media of Maduro in custody or crowds of Venezuelans celebrating racked up millions of views in mere hours. Millions of peopleincluding the usual politicians and tech billionaires whose thumbs are perpetually superglued to the retweet buttonswallowed the digital slop whole. Primeras imágenes de Nicolás Maduro capturado. pic.twitter.com/d8RjDNC3zm— SheIby (@TommyShelby_30) January 3, 2026 Hagin noted that the moment an information vacuum opened regarding Maduro’s capture, individuals started uploading AI-generated images of Maduro in custody of the U.S. Special Forces in order to fill that gap. The most worrying stuff is not those big news moments, which will get fact-checked promptly. Its the little things, the daily stuff that will have greater impact on our psyches. The local news, the scams, the bullying in school, the gossip about that neighbor everyone hates, the teacher, the office enemy, the ex-partner . . . When reality breaks, replaced by a manufactured one, everyone will suffer. So I’m calling for the Mother of All PSAs right now. We cannot sit around waiting for the tech industry to self-regulate, because history proves its leaders possess the moral compass of a weather vane. We need a massive, impossible-to-ignore, flashing-red-light educational campaign pounded into the retinas of every smartphone user on Earth. We need to grab the public by the lapels and shake them until they finally understand that their own eyes and ears are now compromised enemy combatants. So lets do that. Let’s not assume that people will eventually get it because millions of lives and minds are at stake. For the next year or so, let’s launch a worldwide education campaign where every commercial break, every YouTube pre-roll, and every TikTok swipe features a brutal, relentless reminder that objective reality is officially a relic of the past. Everyone must build up and wear psychological armor like we are living in an MMORPG from hell. This needs to be the 21st-century equivalent of Stop, Drop, and Roll, except instead of being physically on fire, your perception of truth is being incinerated by a server farm in Guangdong. We have to normalize radical skepticism before its too late. But since nobody is going to do that, just remember, kids: Don’t believe everything you see. Love your mama. And don’t do drugs. Or do drugs because realityis not real. Who the hell cares anymore?
Category:
E-Commerce
Networking as a solopreneur can feel impossible. LinkedIn is full of the sort of hustle-culture aficionados who think yoga at 4 a.m. is something to brag about and who want you to buy their online course. Joining a networking referral group often costs money and can require a big time commitment without a guarantee of new leads. Asking friends and family to make referrals for you gives you flashbacks to that one summer in college when you got roped into selling Cutco knives. But solo businesses are already nontraditional, so you might as well embrace quirky networking opportunities. Some of my best freelancing leads have come from Tumblr, carpooling, and on one memorable occasion, the ladies room at a Nick Cave concert. If youre struggling with how to grow your network as a solopreneur, here are some unexpected strategies you can use. Invite yourself in When consultant Garima Verma wanted to break into the entertainment industry as a student at UCLA, she found that going to networking events and applying to every opportunity got her nowhere. So she decided she needed to get herself into the same room with the people she wanted to work for. There was an event that NBCUniversal was sponsoring, Verma says. I wasnt invited to it and I had nothing to do with it, but I volunteered to help set up and clean up the chairs. That meant she was there with the representatives at the end of the event and could get some one-on-one time with them. I was cleaning up and ended up talking toa little bit corneringa couple of reps, she says. Its how I got my first job in entertainment. Verma has carried that same energy throughout her career. In 2020, she realized she wanted to do more in the world and got really deep into the volunteer infrastructure of the Biden-Harris campaign. I just DM’d a million people on Twitter and told them to talk to me and give me an interview for a job, she says. That’s how I got my first job in politics. These days, Verma works for herself as a strategic advisor and consultant, but she continues to open her own doors. I don’t tend to get invited in the same way others might, and at a certain point I decided I’m going to invite myself in. Ditch the elevator pitch Author and speaker Jason Vitug talks about the networking anxiety that occurs in business environments. When youre expected to schmooze and impress other people, rather than simply connect, it puts too much pressure on every conversation. You might as well imagine Alec Baldwin telling you that coffee is for closers. Thats why Vitug was able to feel comfortable chatting with someone at what could have been a disastrous book signing. No one showed up, and his new contact wandered over to ask why Vitug was sitting there. The two men enjoyed a spirited conversation that landed Vitug a speaking gig. The bookstore environment allowed for a casual conversation, Vitug says. So my advice is to always be open to a conversation because theres a good chance if youre in the same place you have something in common. While Vitug certainly offered his new patron some form of his elevator pitch during their long talk, he didnt lead with it. Instead, he was open to making a real and friendly connection to someone who was curious about him. Immerse yourself in community Charlotte Baker provides full-service payroll for small businesses in Jacksonville, Florida, with her new solo business, Easy Pay. When she was getting the solo enterprise off the ground two years ago, she heard about a community of local businesswomen that she wanted to join. Women Business Owners of North Florida is an independent group, Baker says. Its not like a franchise or a paid networking group. Its a group of about 150 women whove all joined the organization to support and encourage each other. Unlike the traditional group networking model, Bakers community does not expect members to bring referrals each week. Instead, the group offers weekly get-togethers that foster personal and supportive relationshipswhich Baker has found to be invaluable both emotionally and professionally. Most of the women in the group don’t need my services, Baker says. But Ive built close friendships with these women, which has made my life a hundred times better as a business owner. And at least 60% of my revenue I can trace directly to recommendations from that group. Becoming part of a supportive community makes networking much less onerous, since your friends will recommend your business, just as you will recommend theirs. When networking looks like fun Networking as a solopreneur only feels agonizing if you assume it has to follow the corporate rulebook. Theres no reason you have to post performative dreck on LinkedIn, show up at networking events in powersuits, or stumble through memorized lines about your solo business to expand your network. Start by inviting yourself in. Whether you find a way to volunteer for an event that will put you proximity with someone youd like to talk to, or you keep knocking on doors (or sending DMs or emails) until you find someone willing to chat, remember that you can be friendly and persistentas long as youre willing to graciously take no for an answer. Then ditch your elevator pitch. Remember that youre just a person who can have casual conversations with other people. Leading with curiosity and interest rather than a business agenda is more likely to end with a new contact. Its also much less nerve-wracking than self-consciously trying to network. Finally, immerse yourself in your community. A large and supportive community will help do your networking for you, since people who care about you and believe in your business will naturally recommend you when they meet others who need your services. Doing all of that makes networking something you can enjoy rather than something you have to suffer through.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||