Media is mindset
I think Marshall McLuhan said that
I write an email blog thing and I don’t subscribe to email newsletters. Like a black fly in your chardonnay, it’s ironic. [yes, Sherry, I hear you back there.]
When my mindset is email, nothing else matters. It’s not just ads, promos, or sales, I hate anything that tries to take me off-mission. I even ignore things I like.
And, that, Danny is why I don’t subscribe to your BeeHiiv. Sorry, man. I’m in the wrong frame of mind to enjoy and appreciate what you write when it hits me in email. But, I’ve read all your posts.
“Media is mindset.” I think Marshall McLuhan said that. And, if this were Annie Hall, McLuhan would pop out from behind a Barbenheimer standee to tell me I know nothing of his work.
The problem is if you don’t pop out, no one is going to know anything of your work. Your subscriber numbers plateau. Your product doesn’t sell. No one reads your story, 10 Things you didn’t know about toothpaste.
This is the plight of today’s publishers and promoters. How do you interrupt me to get my attention with me tuning out?
Count the number of emails, texts, and (those absurd) phone calls you get. Yesterday, I counted 38. Those aren’t even ads. I have a blocker for those. I wish I could find an attention defense disorderer.
All of those things distracted me. None of them got me to check out what they were pitching. None of them ever do. So, I waste my time playing defense. I block spammy phone numbers. Banish domains to the junk folder in Outlook. I’ve even turned off notifications for texts.
When my mindset is open to new matters, I go to the world and look around.
For me, that’s about 80% LinkedIn, 10% Twitter, and 10% assorted sites I remember to visit once in while (mostly, TechCrunch). If I had access to my usage data at LinkedIn it would look something like this:
+ So-and-so got a certificate. Kept scrolling.
+ Someone I barely know liked an aw-ain’t-that-nice story. Unfollow.
+ Chris Bartley points out the flawed logic in someone’s else pseudo-promotional post. Read it. Learned something. Liked it. DM’d Chris that’s he’s brilliant.
+ Saw Danny posted a new BeeHiiv. Go check it out.
** Go check it out **
Go check it out is the point of a lot of interruption media. Certainly it’s the point of most ads. They want me to check out something. Their post. Their site. Their sale. But they have to reach me when my mind isn’t going to block it.
I wrote this because I was chatting with a newsletter publisher today. A real one. Not a faux blogger (flogger?) like me. His company creates local news in 20+ cities. He explained his challenge. In one major north-west city, he can’t get people to sign up for his newsletter.
We need to get our content to people. Not all of them want it in email. “Heck, my wife won’t read our newsletters.”
Then he made this great point, we have to, “Meet them where they’re at.”
Meet them where they’re at. It’s when your mindset is open to what matters.
In car beats inbox.
We’re in stealth mode building an app that tells you stuff when you’re in an open state of mind. Or, on the open road. She’s called Gia. [Shhhh.]
I’ve been testing Gia in my car. It changed my life. Yes, I know I have a horse in this car race. But don’t take my word for it. A media reporter (who’s not a friend) used Gia for a week. Here’s what he told me.
“It became more of a holistic, natural experience, which surprised me, because, historically, I have not been fond of audiobooks or similar products. I don't like it when computers talk to me. For some reason, Gia feels different.”
Mindset matters. Tell a friend.