Anne Giles Clelland

Value Me

“See what is without judgment.”
- Kristen Lenz

I want to be valued.  I want to be valued for who I am, what I know, and what I can do. 

I am a product of my values.  I have worked long and hard to acquire deep knowledge and to master precise skills.  So, not only do I want others to value me, I want them to value what I value.

The challenge is that what I want, I can’t have.  I will be valued by some of the people some of the time, but not by all of the people all of the time.

Using the metaphor of myself as a product in the marketplace, perhaps I am an amazing product and perhaps people “should” want me because their lives, even the world, would be better for it.  No matter how much I pitch them, beg them, one-up them, or strain to convince, persuade or argue them into valuing me as a product, if they don’t, they don’t.

I cannot make people value me.  I cannot make the market buy what I’m selling.

As I wrote in On Paying for Writing, to quote Jim Flowers, "The market is always right."  Rightly or wrongly, it thinks it is. 

As part of speaking at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference, organized by Dan Smith, editor of Valley Business FRONT, I was on the concluding panel discussing How will writers make money in the future?  It focused primarily on the decline in compensation and careers for writers.

I attended a Sales and Marketing Forum panel discussion offered by the NewVA Corridor Technology Council, NCTC a few days later, led by leaders of PR, marketing and advertising firms specializing in traditional media. 

According to The New York Times, “Advertising…is contracting.”

Despite all the bad news about the media industry, it is expected to be the third-fastest-growing economic sector over the next five years, after mining and construction. Almost none of that growth is forecast to come from shrinking traditional media, however. Instead, it will be drawn from areas like word-of-mouth marketing and public relations (with a 9.2 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 through 2013), branded entertainment (9.3 percent) and the Internet and mobile devices (10.2 percent).

One of the speakers at the sales and marketing forum cautioned the audience, composed mostly of executives from technology companies, about social media, terming it “shiny.”

In a matter of days, I witnessed discussions by two industries in current markets that are contracting and changing.

I felt sad at those two panel discussions.  I felt, in some ways, subject to directives, to attempts to "make" me value what the market no longer does, at least in the same way.  The subtext I heard - and I may be wrong but I think I recognize it because I long for it myself:  “Value me.  Value who I am and what I do.”

I do value writers and traditional media PR and advertising.  But the market won’t currently pay for "how" they're doing it.

I can see that would be daunting.  I don't think too many children say, “When I grow up, I want to be a freelancer!”  And I've given my heart and soul, more than once, to what was becoming a "shrinking" market. 

But my experience with discussion and debate is that they're usually about attempting to "make" people think, feel or do something and, as I’ve mentioned, as soon as I see what is, to the best of my ability, without judgment - the participants are welcome to carry on - I'm out.

About whether writers' words are shiny or social media PR and advertising are shiny, I’m out.

“For the times they are a-changin'."
- Bob Dylan 

I’ve got this cool new company with a radical new business model that synthesizes the best of writing and the best of PR with the best technology in the latest ways.  We're changing the "how."

We think it's of enormous value.

Welcome.  You're invited.

***

Photo: Dan Smith

On Paying for Writing

"The market is always right."
- Jim Flowers

I was honored to speak at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference at Hollins University in Virginia, organized by Dan Smith, editor of the Valley Business FRONT.  I was part of the concluding panel discussion on How will writers make money in the future?

For the most part, that final discussion lamented the contracting length of pieces for which a market exists, and the contracting price-per-word the market will pay, falling from $3 per word to 10 cents per word, according to Keith Ferrell.

Whether it is startup of a fresh competitor, or a scientific breakthrough, or wild fluctuations in the price of crude oil, the message from the marketplace must be heeded.  Stubborn persistence in the face of overwhelming evidence that change is required is one of the most common business mistakes.  And it can easily be fatal...

Flaws can doom a business, and do serious damage to unsuspecting and innocent bystanders, such as employees, suppliers, clients, and (let's not forget) shareholders.

- Jim Flowers, The market is always right.

My mother was a PL/1 programmer.  “I could make PL/1 sing and dance,” she said.  About a computer language for mainframes and stand-alone computers, she added, “No one’s interested anymore.  Especially people who are paying.”

As the founder of a digital media company of which one enterprise has a Web 2.0 business model that synthesizes business news (writing) and public relations (PR, marketing, and advertising), I’m one of the “people who are paying.”  (More about that Web 2.0 business model here and here.)

While the creation of a foundation is in my business plan, I cannot subsidize the art of writing.  I need the writing to produce business results.  I need it to be "right" with the market.

The Ghost Speaks, a series on ghostblogging from Entrepreneur, quotes Brad Porteus, chief marketing officer for elance: "The difference between good and great writing can make a tremendous impact on someone's business."

Yes.  That's the basis of our business model.

But we seek writers who aren't ghostbloggers.  We want writers who want their own words in their own voices with their own names and bylines - who can heed the message of the marketplace.

Our Web 2.0 business model rewards writers - now content creators because we need links and images or videos to accompany words - with a byline, a bio, a link to their sites, and base pay and bonuses based on traffic.

That means that the more the market values the writer's writing, the more the writer gets paid.

Is the market morally right?  Nope.  But does it determine the product it wants and how much it will pay for it?  Yep.

How will writers make money in the future?  The market will decide.

***

Photo credit: Dan Smith

The Year of Revenue

"How would you like your hot dog?” the hot dog vendor asked the Buddhist monk.
The Buddhist monk replied, “Make me one with everything.”

- Remembered, possibly incorrectly, from The Accidental Tourist

As 2010 begins, and the eighteenth month of the founding of my company passes, this is The Year of Revenue.

I loved that start-up phase.  It was a perfect match for my idea-driven, acutely lived life.  Open to every thought and possibility, of my own and others, I experimented, I created, I launched, heart pounding only from the exertion of my own mind.

The trashing David Rose gave my angel investor video pitch - "...the video completely fails as an angel investor pitch!" - was uncomfortable, but not intolerable, because I didn’t know then what I know now.  He’s right.  It does fail.  Developmentally, though, when I made the video a year ago, “Why I love Handshake 2.0” is where I was as a company founder.  I, my idea, and my passion for my idea, were one.

The proof of the value of a business idea is not in how much it’s loved, but in how much revenue it generates.

While I couldn’t hear that, even bear it, during the start-up phase, I’m ready now.

At the end of 2009, my email inbox needed its own server, my desk shouted a confetti of ideas jotted on quarter sheets, and my business model - so predictably and tediously entrepreneurial - looked like a house painter’s pants - lots of color, no picture.

I’ve had the great idea.  It’s time to execute it.

In 2010, I aspire to Buddhist monkhood.  I am a) practicing consciousness, b) practicing discernment, specifically thus:  “Oh, I’m having an idea.  Is it one we know, based on our experience and business model, will generate revenue?” and c) choosing to what I give my attention, i.e. if the answer to the revenue question is "no," letting it go.

This takes discipline.  Instead of wrangling other entrepreneurs, I have to snap the reins on myself.

On an execution scale of 1 to 10, for the first 17 days of 2010, I give myself an 8.  My inbox is less full, my desk less cluttered.  I’ve had lots of ideas, and I’ve given the tempting ones a little more time than I would have liked, but the ones to which the revenue question answer is “yes,” I’ve given TLC.

I've never seen an About page that has "Wow!" in it, but mine now does.

And if David Rose is at the next VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Summit, why, I've got the colors of my business model in a big picture One-Page Summary ready to apply to pitch.  If I'm selected, my pitch won't begin with, "What I love about Handshake 2.0..."

Did I love the heady, intoxicating, high-low start-up phase?  You bet.  For my head, heart and spirit, that’s a match.  Could I be a serial entrepreneur?  Possibly.  But a series begins with a success. 

Let The Year of Revenue begin.