Someone recently asked me… “How do you know when you are making a positive impact online?”.
My answer is people will let you know. You should be receiving emails, Facebook messages, phone calls, letters and gifts in the mail and more almost every day. If you aren’t receiving this type of feedback on a regular basis, then chances are you have a lot of work left to do before you’re really making a significant impact.
I have a weird system of measurement for impact and it goes like this. You should be receiving at least one completely unsolicited compliment every day in some manner. Sometimes more. If you are not receiving this type of praise, then I reckon you are probably not serving your market as well as you could be.
Of course this kind of feedback doesn’t come overnight and takes some serious dedication to your readers or fans. It’s acquired through trust, consistency and sincere effort on your part. You’ll know by feedback alone when you are truly making a positive impact in other peoples lives because they will go out of their way to tell you so. And quite often. And in numerous ways.
Every month I get at least 5 to 10 emails that say nearly the exact same thing. It always goes something like this… “Jason, your email list is one of the only lists that I stay subscribed to. I’ve unsubscribed from almost every marketer I know because all they do is pitch me stuff and don’t truly care about me or my business. But I love your emails and the way you reach out to your members”.
Now those are my words paraphrasing the dozens and hundreds of emails I get saying almost the same thing over and over again. This is sad news for many email marketers because people are unsubscribing from email lists in droves. Yet for some reason they love being on my list and sometimes they’ll even ask if I’ll mail them more often. How often do your subscribers plead for more emails? That almost never happens.
My intention of this blog post is not to brag or boast. It’s to tell you that if you are not receiving compliments regularly, you’re probably not doing a good enough job communicating and providing value to your readers. Period. The market will let you know when you are performing beyond expectations. And if you never hear from them, they are still informing you of their disinterest by not giving feedback.
I’m really grateful for all the feedback I receive, even the bits that aren’t glowing with praise. I honor everyone’s opinion regardless of whether it coincides with my beliefs or not because it helps me to reflect upon myself and grow within.
So thank you to everyone who’s ever taken the time to send me a message, leave a compliment, share a gift or reach out in any manner because I truly do appreciate it. It’s extremely helpful for me to gauge how well I’m doing in life, business and my relationships when I receive that kind of feedback.
What kind of feedback are you getting, and how often? I’m not talking about survey type feedback either. I’m talking about completely unsolicited feedback. What are people saying about you online? What are they saying in their emails to you? What are they saying behind your back? Hopefully good things.
Anyhow, this blog post was intended to answer the question “How do you know when you are making a positive impact online?”, and to encourage you to share with others to ensure that you are getting at least one unsolicited compliment a day. It feels good and is validation that the effort and hard work you are putting into your online ventures are surely working.
If you aren’t receiving these types of compliments, please don’t worry or be ashamed. Use it as motivation to serve others above and beyond what you are doing. You’ll know when you are on the right track because people will be more than willing to point it out.
Cheers,
Jason
PS: A good exercise I like to implement is making sure to compliment others when I feel it’s deserved. I’d say getting in the habit of dishing out 3 to 5 genuine compliments per day will do you (and others) wonders.
Awesome post bro! Yeah I only follow people who actually talk to you and not at you. You are one of those people. You have helped me make money in your tips and tricks. Being on your list alone is gold.
Jason,
Okay I can take a hint.
There I did it.
Can I go to lunch now?
Jim
Jason,
Your writing is exponentially improving on a continuous basis because it comes from your heart and from your keen observations of people and what makes us tick. You have loyal raving fans because you take the time to empathize, to listen, to observe, and to get into the heads of your followers.
Even when you promote an offer, you have earned our trust by “telling it like it is” and by recommending products that you sincerely believe will be of benefit to us. If you believe that something is “CRAP”, you will tell us that you think it is crap.
It is your no B.S, no blow smoke up our butts, sincerity that keeps us coming back for more. Although there are thousand’s of us on your list – you continue to read our e-mails and occasionally let us know that you care by giving us a thoughtful, genuine response.
I always look forward to hearing from you and open your e-mails first because you have such a refreshing outlook on things. You are right about the unsubscribing. I recently went down my page of e-mails and asked myself this question – what value does this person provide me? If the answer is “the only thing I ever get is some pitch to sell me something”, then I hit the unsubscribe button. What a relief to weed these people from my life.
I have developed the habit of occasionally reading a sales letter about a Clickbank product, and then going to the affiliate’s area to see the pitch they give to the other sales people. The lack of sincerity is so transparent when you see the difference between the tone in their pitch to the prospects, versus the pitch to the JV’s. It almost makes you feel like a fool for buying from them, so why do it?
Keep up the good work, Jason. You are the bright spot in my day and you put a smile on my face. Of course, I love your Rants too!
Thanks for bringing sunshine to my inbox!
Jazmin
Well Mo,I can admit I don’t do enough to create interest for musicians and it shows in the lack of comments and emails.
Guess I better get back to serious work. Abaduh!
Thank you for the illuminating post man.You tell us what we need to hear and
to get back to bloody work.
Mark
EXCELLENT Jason… Light Light Light, Best, Brian-
I think everyone should be on your list just to take a note on how you approach and treat your readers, let alone for the content you provide! Thanks Jason!
Jason,
Another interesting post. I do need to unsubscribe from all those other “gurus” lists. Such garbage pitches. Have they no shame?
Jason,
Your comments were so refreshing and positive— Just like you! I will think about what you wrote for a long, long time. I love the way you are so open and sharing. I know you have a lot on your mind health-wise, yet you continue to be uplifting. You are an inspiration to me and I have learned allot from you.
Love,
RoseAnn
Interesting metric to measure impact on your readership. I have added this as a power question to focus my mind on building my business.
Jason,
I’ve been a reader of your blog for almost two years now and I’ve seen you go through a lot of changes in your career and personal life. The one thing that stays consistant is your dedication to people and respect for the common man (/woman).
I’ve watched a lot of your marketing buddies go down different paths that seem either money or fame oriented but you have stayed loyal to people and your thrist for living in the moment seems to grow deeper every day.
I’ve got nothing against those other guys, they all do some pretty amazing things, but I have total respect for your concern for “people” and not just their wallet.
Keep the passion,
Charles
Love this! Just saw Felicia share it on Facebook and had to pop over to read the post. What a smart way to measure impact.
It’s wonderful to locate great posts like this 1. Thank you!