Vision Of Success

Imagine sitting in a class room. The instructor stands at the podium and gives his presentation.

Off to the side is a big screen with a projection system attached to the instructor’s laptop. He refers to a PowerPoint presentation, and intermixes it with live Internet displays to further the instruction process.

Two other screens are on display at the front of the room. Both are interconnected to various chatrooms and microblogging sites where people are attending the class via satellite from locations all over the world. They watch through streaming video, and can communicate with both the instructor and the audience by making posts within these sites. Their comments are instantly posted to these big screens, allowing them to give feedback and have communication with everyone in attendance.

With over 100 people in attendance, each has a laptop and actively takes notes throughout the training. They also search for supporting sites as the instructor speaks, and perform a variety of other tasks at the same time, such as emailing, blogging, microblogging, searching, etc.

They can snap a photo with their camera phone or Flip video camera. They can plug in and upload photos instantly to their various accounts, allowing them to remember details within their notes.

Sound like something that will take place years from now? Think again.

I attended a blogging convention over the weekend, and was amazed at the interconnectivity. The speakers did more than speak - they communicated and interacted every second they were on the stage. They adjusted their ideas, answered questions, and communicated in a way to interact with everyone.

As an audience member, you not only paid attention to the speaker, you had access to streams of thoughts from multiple users both in the room and across the world.

Does this enhance your learning? Definitely. It’s much easier to get your thoughts into the stream of discussion, and actually have control over how much detail is covered during the presentation.

Will it eventually be used in all forms of class room training? [yes, even down to the elementary level] I sure hope so. This is how kids will learn what they need to know in the future, and how they can grasp the knowledge they need to move into certain areas of specialization.

Learning the “old” way is no longer applicable to our lives. With the tools and technology available, its amazing how fast we can learn and communicate with people just like us - around the world.

The future is now.

I just noticed my class is online. I’ll be teaching a class at Arapahoe Community College on October 7th from 6 to 8:30 pm.

The class is titled, How To Use Social Networking To Boost Your Business. If you’re in the Denver area, I’d love to have you in class.

We’ll be talking about a variety of different ways to use the new social media to build up connections for your business, where to look for social sites, and how much time it really takes to stay active online.

Hope to see you there.

Last night I enjoyed another great dinner and conversation with my mastermind group. Every three weeks we get together to discuss business. We’re all building businesses online in some manner, and we ended up together to help each other grow and succeed online.

After a year and a half together, it’s amazing how much we’ve all grown. We’ve seen many changes in our business, some successes and some failures. But the great thing is every three weeks we can share our ideas, ask for opinions, and get honest feedback from people that share a common interest.

I started thinking about why being a part of a mastermind is so important. Obviously there are a ton of reasons. But the one that kept coming to my mind was having a group that in no way is impacted financially by what you do, yet know you well enough to see exactly what you should be doing, and has no reservations on telling you exactly what you should be doing.

Let me give you an example. One of the members has an incredible niche, and has made her full time income from her website for many years now. She’s been adding a few products and changing some of her ideas over the past year and a half. But a few months ago, as she started developing a coaching program, the rest of the mastermind group told her she needed a membership site. It was a perfect fit for what she was doing.

She was skeptical at first, but kept pursuing it. She’s been working on building it during 2008, and last night she reported she’s almost got it all together. Way to go!

It’s so amazing watching things come together for the people around you. And what’s more amazing is that while you are watching their progress, it usually comes together for you too.

We’re not meant to do things by ourselves. Instead we’re meant to build things together. If you’re a solopreneur, get in a mastermind. They are highly worth it - I can’t rant enough about the benefits of a mastermind. You don’t have to meet in person; some very good ones have formed through phone calls.

The important thing is to find people that have something in common, and work to help build the knowledge base of all the members. 

Did you enjoy the movie The Secret? Did An Inconvenient Truth make you think? I was just introduced to another movie that makes you think about this time in our lives - how we’re living - and what’s ahead in our future. Take a look - and let me know what you think.

Watch and find out.

I’m starting a series of teleclasses, and went in search of a system to allow up to 100 people onto a line. I may eventually want to invest in a secure line full time for my business, but I wanted something quick and easy; something I could use almost instantly.

I found a great service in www.totallyfreeconferencecalls.com I signed up for my free account, which allows you to have access 24 hours a day to a conference line, exclusively for your business. Then I also upgraded for $25 per month, which allows me to record my calls and have the ability to download the file for further use.

I’ve used the system twice this week, both times with success. The quality of the line was outstanding, the ease of the system was much appreciated, and my call recordings were waiting for me by the time I logged in at my computer. Within 30 minutes of the end of the call, I had my recording up and on my site, and available for listening.

The only downside: a voice advertises TotallyFreeConferenceCalls.com at the beginning when each person dials into the given number.

I can live with that!

Lori

p.s. If you are a photographer, I’m adding a whole new series of teleclasses and podcasts just for photographers. Visit www.VirtualPhotographyStudio.com to see a listing of my recorded teleclasses and podcasts, and to view my current schedule.