The World According to Mitch Fanning

Note: this article is a continuation of  “What are Your Intentions for 2012.”

It was the year 2000, and after finishing 18 years of formal education, I was having second thoughts.

After I had calmed myself down, I suddenly realized I had felt this way all along.

Was it just me?

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RIP Steve…

Photo credit: Apple.com

• How many useful things can I create in my life (for others)?
• You don’t need money to start helping people today.
• You can’t help everyone, so proudly exclude people.
• Make yourself unnecessary to running your business.
• Stay focused on just helping people today.
• Focus on improving or inventing, not promoting something that people just don’t seem to need or want.
• If you can’t say “hell yeah” or “wow, let’s do it” to something then say no.
• You don’t need large clients to be successful, just lots of little ones.

If any of the above questions or statements resonate with you then I recommend you read: Anything You Want by Derek Sivers (via Seth Godin’s new book publishing imprint, The Domino Project (powered by Amazon).  Actually, my advice would be – don’t get the book, get the audio book.

Why?

Having the audio book was like sitting down with Derek (himself) for about an hour as he told me his amazing story of how he created CDbaby from scratch and sold it 10 years later for $22 million.

Honest. Straightforward. Simple.

What I liked most about the book was the fact that he was completely honest and straightforward about his failures and mistakes.  I mean this guy made a lot of mistakes (really, who doesn’t), but he kept things simple. Really, really simple. This is an important lesson for those of us starting anything new: be it a project, a blog post, a book, or even a small business.

Just Start By Finding Ways To Help

For those of you who read a lot of business books (like me) you’re not going to hear anything new. However, what you will get for roughly $10, is an inspirational story told in a forthcoming way about an average guy who did his best not to build a business, but to help out his friends and some other independent musicians.

The Result?

Not only did this make him happy, he enjoyed the process, made something useful for thousands of people, and lived life on his own terms.

So, what do you want?

Somewhere in Santorini, Greece (not a bad point of view, if I do say so myself)

I’m currently reading Onward by Howard Shultz, founder and ceo of Starbucks.  So far, it’s a good read. I also read Howard’s first book and really enjoy his informal and genuine writing style.

One idea that popped out, while reading the latest chapter, was his need to re-communicate Starbucks’ point of view upon his return as ceo in 2008.  After pondering this idea for a moment, I came to the conclusion that every business should have a “Point of View”, just as every person should have a point of view.

Something your business stands for (your platform).

Something to defend.

Something to share.

Its reason for existing.

I believe Fruition Interactive‘s point of view is that “digital marketing should drive business results”. Your website is meaningless unless it gets people to take action – action that you’ve predetermined as being important to your business.

Your online marketing initiatives, whether it be pay per click advertising, search engine optimization, social media initiatives, or e-mail must drive qualified traffic to your site and create real, measurable business results.  If popular social networking sites are driving traffic to your site – traffic which can be verified through Google Analytics – but not turning into inquiries and/or subscribers, you’re not using social media in the right way – yet.

When it comes to my personal point of view – I have many.  One is that getting what you want usually comes as a result of not conforming to what is generally done or believed by others.  Another one is everyone should use the Internet to build their personal brand and share their Point of View.

That’s my Point of View.

What yours?

About the Author

Mitch is VP of Fruition Interactive.  He has spent the last 11 years working with businesses of all sizes, from global brands to some of Canada’s fastest growing web start-ups ranked in the PROFIT 100 in a marketing, leadership, or business development capacity.

Photo credit: Wolfgang Staudt

Something interesting happened today.  As you may know, while at SXSW, I attended Gary Vaynerchuk’s keynote called the Thank you economy (also the title of his latest book).

During his keynote, he told the audience he was retiring from doing his daily video blog on Wine Library TV to pursue a new project called DailyGrape.com.  Among other things, the Daily Grape is an iPhone app that brings you a daily dose of wine education and recommendations in the form of short daily videos from you guessed it, Gary.

Since I love wine, and live just 20 minutes from 85 thriving wineries in the Niagara wine region I downloaded the app.  Unfortunately, the audio on the mobile video player didn’t work.

Today after seeing one of Gary’s tweets, I decided to reach out to him about my problem.  Partly, I wanted to test whether or not he practiced what he preached.  Mostly, however, I just needed my problem solved.  In exactly 11 minutes, I received a response from Gary.

Here’s the conversation:

My phone was on vibrate.  I turned off vibrate.  Audio worked.  Problem solved.

What’s My Point

This guy really cares.  He really gives a shit.  He really does hustle.

Sure, he’s an entrepreneur and has his reasons.  We all do, but more importantly, this New York Times bestselling author and entrepreneur who runs a multimillion operation took the time on his Saturday morning to respond to a [insert profane word here] customer service request?!?

Sure, it may not be scalable, but he’s made me a believer.  He’s inspired me to care more.  To give a shit more.  To hustle, and strive to make a difference.

Thanks Gary.