It was on of those weeks where Facebook cut off every status update I did. Where apparently no one saw what I typed. The pictures I posted. The links I cared about. Or maybe they just didn't care. The questions is, why does that matter? And does that really matter to me? Does it matter to you?
Twitter has long been the most stupid thing ever. Who cares if you went to the store? Who cares if you have IBS? Who cares where you are? You didn't invite me? Right ... Who wants to know about all that then?
Maybe I do. I don't know.
I have thousands of followers (follow me, follow me) and I follow a thousand or so - I don't know what they say. It's all noise.
Bleating of sheep. Sheep have an underlying unhappiness about them.
They're nothing but sheep - and they somehow know it.
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HERE'S THE QUESTION
Are you validated by having a lot of likes? Follows? Shares? Re-tweets?
I think about the recent picture of all the blondes at the baseball game, taking selfie after selfie - all trying to capture that "one exciting and great looking moment" before going back to the mundane-ness that every baseball game really is.
Baseball is boring. I love it. But it's a boring game to sit and watch (absent a lot of beer and a hot dog).
Staging is something everyone has learned or needs to learn.
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WHAT IS STAGING?
Staging is making sure that what media sees and shows to others is not the reality of the situation.
You have boots in training and boots on the ground. Staging is what it looks like when the boots on the ground look exactly like how they were trained - something all my friends who have been active service and deployed will tell you, doesn't happen because real life is messy.
Politicians are some of the best at staging. They know who, what, when, where, and why. Always aware of the camera. Always aware of the open mic.
They know what to say before they even say it.
New celebrities have a harder time.
Business people - CEO's and the like have an even harder time. Good grief.
Most CEO's and business operators have no idea how to stage anything. They are operations people, not creatives. They're terrible at it and find 'optics' as a barrier to their ultimate goal. But the two go hand in hand.
There's actually some good money in teaching "media relations" to CEO's and others who don't know what they're doing.
Teaching people to stand on stage and speak is huge. There's opportunity there. It's hard for people to do.
It's like me playing piano - I have no idea.
Some CEO's can't learn what to do when the cameras are in their face (shut up) or the microphone is on (shut up).
I love that scene in that one movie where the guy is learning to be on the witness stand and he's asked if he knows what time it is, and answers with the time - and the guy teaching him how to be on the stand says, "no! never give up that information. The question is do you have the time? Your answer is yes." (I'm not going to google it, I don't know - it's a movie)
That's about the only answer a CEO or celebrity or politician has to give to be successful, unless they're giving a speech (and that's when short term staging turns into long term messaging - but that's another post) - shut up. No comment.
But most have diarrhea of the mouth and just say whatever comes to mind when asked a question by the media (unless they know the SEC is watching - then they're tight lipped as a drum).
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Now days everyone should know staging and how to do it correctly.
If those girls at the baseball game can make themselves look like they have the most exciting lives and everything is just wonderful, surely people can figure out a way themselves.
And so, that's what most people have done.
The great equalizer. That's social media.
At the end of the day, if no one reads what you wrote, likes what you said, shares what you want, or comments on your status, do you feel like a tree in the forest being cut down?
Ya know, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound type thing?
If so, you should probably reconnect with the "real" world and forget about that social stuff for a while.
At the same time, if you get all your personal validation from posting on these services and it affects your behavior in a way that you think more or less about yourself and your circumstances because of the interactions you have (those baseball girls probably had hundreds of friends like those pictures before they went viral and turned into a negative - now they're just known as the baseball bitches, probably not a good thing - but before that, I'm certain they were feeling pretty good about their staging and the world loved them) - That's not the best thing either and it's probably best if you also get off social for a while and figure out what's really important.
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Stage your life as positive no matter what. Always, always present a 'best foot forward' approach no matter what when it comes to online interactions.
There will never be a shortage of people who will try and use whatever negative you have going on against you - and there's even more that will never let you live it down.
Tell me what all of these terms have in common:
Print media
TV media
Radio media
News media
Social media
Exactly. M-E-D-I-A
Media is about staging.
The goal is to always be staged while not looking like you are staging because media is media and they are mostly made up of professional and part time tyrants hoping against hope to catch you doing something they don't like or approve of so they can slam you (a lot of "good friends" are like this too).
Don't forget, we live in a "gotcha society".
The mistake the girls at the game made was forgetting to realize they were actually in a public setting where everyone around them (the social media) has access to the information they were trying to disseminate to the public - and of course, behind the scenes all staging looks staged.
Stage your life in social but make sure to always pay attention to your environment and know who's around. And be "real" in private for those who it's worth being real for (that will help you even know if you should be 'doing social' in the moment).
Here's what will happen - you will find that the more you outwardly stage your life for success, the more success you will find in your life.
True.
There is a saying, "people love a winner" - and that's the truth.
And that truth will lead to Open Doors and Opportunity.
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