Just In Case

I live in a constant state of discovery. My radar is always up for cool new things — books, music, movies, magazines, art, websites, social media tools, apps, business models, online courses, interesting people, media delivery mechanisms, articles, etc…

I always have something new to share.

When I’m speaking with friends and clients my conversation inevitably turns to online services and social media sites. I used a reference to Meerkat and Periscope this morning and I caught someone looking at me like I had three heads (but that’s okay. I’m used to it.)

In my Don The Idea Guy seminars and workshops on marketing and social media I always cover the popular social tools, the ones you can’t “not mention”, but I like to throw in the new discoveries — the new tools that have just broken the horizon — and provide some ideas on how the audience might consider using them.

After the session, someone will come up to me and ask me about one or two of the new sites I mentioned and they inevitably get around to asking “How do you keep up with all of them?”  The short answer is “it’s my job” — but it’s also a passion to find the next big thing and stay ahead of the curve (and give me some cools things to share in my workshops!)

Until now I didn’t really have a “great” answer to that question, but the great @GaryVee just supplied me with an excellent point of reference I can use for answering this question the next time it’s asked.  He does a wonderful job in the video below of explaining just how important it is (from a purely business standpoint) of getting experience with the latest thing — ahead of your competitors.

Just in case it takes off and gets big.