Pay Attention!

If you are reading on a smartphone, use landscape / hold phone sideways.

When you pay attention to someone, you watch them, listen to them, or take notice of them. 

She says, "I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention. Were you trying to say something?" is what no guy on a date wants to hear, ever.

I paid the pizza delivery guy. You could not pay me to do that. I paid a teenager to mow the lawn. He paid the penalty. It pays you to stay open, it pays you to re-open. You can pay one's way or pay the piper or pay through the nose. 

This Tuesday I will be doing my first LIVE (paid) presentation in New York City, in over a year, due to COVID. 

Attention Marketing is a term coined by internet entrepreneur Steve Jelley to describe a particular business model that has evolved around the growth of social media. It was popularized by the book Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin. 

For the first time in over a year, I shall be paying good money out-of-pocket to go into the city for an event. I paid to have a suit dry cleaned. It shall cost me money to take the bus, it shall cost me money to eat in the city (it's never cheap) and it shall cost me money to get back home. If the day goes long into the night, it shall cost me money to stay over. Normally I would charge for my travel and expenses (I would normally get paid for all of this) but not this time. Besides, I really want to get back into the city! I'm getting paid for my TIME and for my KNOWLEDGE, but not for my travel and expenses. That's fine - this time. 

[ Insert smiley face ].

This Tuesday in New York City - THE BIG APPLE - people are paying to hear me speak, live. Will there be food? Hell yes! But no one is coming for the food alone. They too will be spending time and money, to get to the venue. 

Permission Marketing is a concept introduced by the book of the same name in 1999 by marketing expert (Seth Godin, again). Permission marketing is a non-traditional marketing technique that advertises goods and services when advance consent is given. Interruption Marketing is essentially a competition to win people's attention. Seth Godin believes that marketing strategies should be based on the following three elements: Anticipated, Personal, Relevant. 

• Anticipated: people will anticipate the service/product information from the company.
• Personal: the marketing information explicitly relates to the customer.
• Relevant: the marketing information is something that the consumer is interested in.

In the past year, I lost count how many Zoom Meetings (be it a "Zoom" meeting on Zoom, or on WebEx, Cvent, Intrado, GoToWebinar, etc.) I attended, or presented or co-presented. I think I recorded around a hundred video podcasts in the past year, give or take. All from my home office, never from the city. THE COST of this activity was very close to $0 but the cost of TIME (mine or yours) is never free. 

And so: we are all in the Attention Business.  

I cannot teach you anything, if I have not earned your attention. I cannot sell you anything, if I have not earned your attention. Engagement, Adoption and Utilization can never happen, without first getting someone to - pay attention. 

And: if they have PAID good money to then "pay attention" to you and/or to your presentation, then the permission marketing of the equation is already built-in. 

[ You can stop reading now, if you wish. The rest is just ego stroking..... I said what I wanted to say in this Sunday's blog post. It's fine, you can take off. ]

Seriously, you can stop reading now, it's cool. No need to scroll down any further. 

Below is how I was being "marketed " to get people to pay good money to attend this Tuesday's event. 

Thomas Capone, Chair and CEO of NYDLA.org (and now NADLA.org)

Thomas Capone has been servicing 300+ of the Fortune 1000 Since 1983 in all areas of voice, data, wireless and wireline services. Thomas took over running the Distance Learning Association during the last recession, growing it from insolvency to 5.6M+ members. Today, as a result of the pandemic, NYDLA has now become NADLA servicing the 579M+ people of North America. 

Specialties: Audio, Web, Videoconferencing, Voice, Cloud, Data, VoIP, TEM, Managed Services, BPO, SaaS, Wireless, eCommerce, SEO, Hosting, Security, Consulting, Social Media, Mobility.

Key Specialties: SaaS, IoT, mobility, cloud solutions, solution selling, commercial and enterprise sales, channel development, strategic partnerships, global market experience, collaboration solutions, commercial and large volume sales programs, product planning, target marketing and segmentation, market development; project operations, launch strategies, lead generation, client satisfaction and performance based leadership.

Thomas says: Distance Education has become just EDUCATION. Remote Work has become just WORK. eCommerce has become just COMMERCE. Telemedicine has become just MEDICINE. Distance Learning became DIGITAL Learning, and now - it is all just DIGITAL LIVING. 

We are all building back better, as we live, learn, work and play in the global cloud economy. 

***

If you did get this far in my Sunday Blog... I must have earned your attention, right? 

Or, you had nothing better to do on a Sunday. Ya know, my older blog posts are also pretty good, so I am told. You should be able to just scroll down. 

See? Once you have EARNED THEIR ATTENTION, the rest is easy. 

TomCapone.com