So I hear everybody talking about the new normal and what’s going to happen afterwards, and while I think that’s important, there is another factor in this that I haven’t heard anybody speak of, and quite frankly, I’ve been doing a lot of research and listening to a lot of thought leaders, I used air quotes, thought leaders and what they had to think about all this.
And of course with all this time that we have, that we’re alone, gives us a time to do some deep thought.
So I want to share with you, I think, one of the most important pieces that we’ve overlooked that could make a difference in how you and your business move forward.
Covid-19 and the new normal for business
So what is this piece that I think we’ve overlooked and all the experts are saying things about unprecedented times and making sure that this new normal, what does that mean? Well, I want to challenge you to think about this just slightly differently.
And what my thought is is this, there was a time when we used to get out of our chairs, walk to the TV and change the channel. How long has that been going on? Or not been going on, more importantly. We don’t do that anymore.
We use a remote. To go back is almost insane. Another item is what about the way we travel to, you don’t see people riding horses down the freeway anymore. Yes, they still ride horses, we still love horses, but they don’t use it as their main mode of transportation.
My Customers are not on the Internet
So, what does this all mean? Well, one thing I’ve noticed is, and we’ve all done this, is the whole internet thing has blown up. Now, it used to be a situation when I’m talking to a potential customer, they’ll say, “Oh my customers are not on the internet. They’re not on Facebook”, and yet just recently YouTube talked about their YouTube traffic being up over 60%. and I want you to think about that, 60% increase in their traffic.
Why is that?
Because people are going to the internet, they’re using YouTube to fill up their time, but they’re not just filling up their time. They’re doing some different things, they’re doing research, they’re learning, they’re learning how to use technology. It’s one of those things where this is a cool time, I think, because we get an opportunity to say, “Hey, everyone jumped in the pool at the same time. We all had to do something different.”
And when that happens, I don’t think we’re going to go back. And what I mean by that is I don’t think we’re going to move away from using Zoom or virtual meetings.
What will be the new normal for business?
I think that question is going to come up as like, “Well, do I really need to get on a plane? Do I really need to drive across town or can I just have a Zoom meeting and have Bob from Chicago, and I’m in Los Angeles, be on the phone, let’s get this done and move on?”
I think there are other things.
So I guess this is one of the things I think we’ve unpacked Pandora. We have taken down the technology barrier. I can’t tell you how many people and organizations in the last four weeks that we at my company coached, or taught, or created tutorials for on how to use virtual meetings that now that’s what they do.
Companies we work for or we work with, that we’ve converted them into almost 100% digital and virtual, teaching online and presenting classes. Now they’ve gone from one day a week or they do something, more live streaming, now they’re doing it seven days a week and we’ve seen exponential growth.
There’s a saying that says “when a tide goes out, you find out who was swimming naked”.
And what we saw was in that whole process is there’s a lot of people, a lot of businesses out there that were not prepared for this because they said, “Ah, that will never change. My customers will never be on the internet.” Well, guess what? They are on the internet.
So, what does this all mean? Well, I think it means Pandora’s out of the box and we’re not letting her back in.
What I mean by that is, do we have to go to a yoga studio to take yoga?
Do we have to go to a gym to get healthier?
The answer is no.
We’re discovering that. There’s tons of information online. But here’s something I want you to think about, if you’re doing any of those things and you’re now saying, “Hey, I have to have people come to me to learn what I do. I have to up my game and say, I’m still going to do this, but I’m going to do it in a virtual setting.”
I’m going to give you one stat here from a client. She went online after we talked about it many, many times about her doing a live video, and I said, “Just do it”, and she did, and in less than 24 hours she had over 7,000 views unpaid. These are organic. People are watching things online right now.
I want to wrap this up by just saying, don’t think of this as a new normal.
Think about these pieces that we’ve been using to get through this, we’ve been doing this now for four or five, maybe by the time it’s all said and done, six to eight weeks, we’ve created some new habits. We’ve created some new things for us to say, there’s no reason to get in the car and go, there’s no reason to drive over to Costco, there’s no reason to drive to Von’s, they’ll deliver, I’ll just pick up the phone.
How is that going to change your world?
Is it going to make us more efficient? Is it going to make us, I guess, less dependent on saying, “Hey, I have to work in this box”? I think so. It’s not a new norm.
It’s understanding, hey, what are those fundamentals that have changed? And as Wayne Gretzky said, “I’m going to skate where the puck is going, not where the puck is.”
I challenge you to the same thing.
Thanks for joining. My name is Jeff Harrison. We own a company called Swing Point Media and we are a digital marketing agency that are swimming with our suits on.
SwingPointMedia is a marketing company focused on using content marketing, such as written articles, video and podcasts, to attract their customers ideal audiences. This approach has proven to attract higher quality customers while simultaneously reducing the sales cycle by as much as 70%.
SwingPointMedia serves local businesses in Southern California and can be reached by calling 760-422-5176.
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