Ever be in a situation where what someone is saying does not feel right? They are talking over everyone else, are louder, and never stops? They stick to one point and the more they speak the more you are feeling that what they are saying is not right? They continue to beat one point to where you, yourself, get to a point where you have to listen despite knowing it is nonsense? Nothing you want to or can say will even be heard. You want to leave but yet it grabs your attention enough that no matter how ridiculous or ignorant they sound, the train wreck syndrome enters. Their inability to listen or comprehend holds you there as you want to fight the fight that will never be won … or is it that they have gotten under your skin so much that you have to stick around? Why? You know they ain’t got nothin’ but yet their nothin’ really gives you something.
The Power of Something
Something. You have something. You have an incredible amount of information that could mean nothing but yet could yield a whole lot. How? You never want to be that obnoxious, uninformed ignorant fool so you delve into research (sometimes more than you should) to ensure that you will never be them. This is a strange phenomenon actually where we take the experience of them that ends up molding us into working harder and bettering ourselves. That, I believe is the power of something. You are taking something that through the experience of being compelled to listen or even engage fruitlessly and then turn that into something more is how we separate ourselves.
You Ain’t Got Nothin’
Even after that we still all feel this? We all do. You stare at a blank page and no words appear. There are so many thoughts that go through your head but they get deleted or crossed out. You start to look at notes that you have, think about how you can make sense of them to get words down on the page. Something has to come together. It just has to. Why? Why does it have to? Will that article make or break you? Maybe. Will loyal readers come over and take a peek? Probably but that further complicates putting words on the page. Truth is your nothin’ is your something … to someone else.
Making Nothin’ Into Something
Making nothin’ into something is the travels of each and every idea. It is nothing until we make it come to life. We have make it into something. In blogging we tell everyone we have no expectations but yet we know we do. We want to write the words that makes the whole world sing … our praises. But are we writing to the audience that we want or the audience we think will read? These do combine sometimes but we know in social media that we are writing to impress and gain authority. As much as the sales matter, the attention matters as well. If we have the attention, we have that vibe that pushes us to keep digging deeper but are we digging into a big fat hole? If the attention is from our peers and the article resonates and does well, is it taking us away from where we need to be?
Where we need to be? Sounds a bit strange as if we are getting the traffic, then we are going to reap the rewards, right? Well while this does within SEO help, are we are mostly talking to our competitors? They love us and we love them but unless we are referral agents, we are talking to a crowd that shares our sentiment and passion but yet at the same time is making our nothin’ into something?
How Your Nothin’ Becomes Something
When you close the window; the window of popularity. If you are popular within your target market and are generating a constant revenue, then hey, you need to stop reading. If you are not, you have to have the moment that many had when Chris Brogan stopped too many of us in our tracks with his Which Crowd blog. It puts a lot into perspective and makes us think. Who am I writing to? The masses in social media so they can say I am so great or the customers who pay the bills? Hey look ,when my friend gave me props in his Ad Age article, I was through the roof. I was actually totally having a little dance party and could not wait to tell my friends and family that ME, my name was in Ad Age. I never ever thought that I would ever be in Ad Age, especially with Tom Martin. I first started stalking following Tom on Twitter from his columns in Ad Age. That little bit of nothing when I was so adamant to my friend that I had to walk through the flower garden (and was so willing to back out when they took their first breathe and sneezed) became something. Will that something be business or just a new borrowed eyes that are wondering why the hell Tom is writing about her?
Your nothin’ becomes something when you lose the part of you that has to belong. I could have said in one of my favorite places no, no, I will cannot have you sneezing, we can go and turned to leave (which I did) but, I was talking to the person that was listening and had eyes on me. When we talk to that one person that is listening and then is a buyer, we are way ahead of most. If you are writing to the Gods of popularity then well you are going find out real fast that the nothin’ pretty much leads to more nothin’.
Now Your Turn ….
photo credit:
