The Master Mind Hack and Your X/Twitter Profile

Business brain, episode 477 for Wednesday, August 23, 2023. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we tune our business brains together by dissecting a topic or two every single week, sometimes twice a week. Sponsors for this episode include financing that works.com, where you can go. And Zinch is going to waive their $250 application fee for you because you're a Business Brain listener. We'll talk more in depth about that in a minute. For now, at least, while we're recording this here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm.

Dave Hamilton, and in Lafayette, I'm still out here in California. I'm Shannon Jean. How you doing?

I'm good. I'm good. We record a few days early, usually, and I will be at Podcast Movement in Denver.

Nice.

Actually, I'll be flying back the day that this releases, so I'm sure I will have things to report about that I don't know that one industry needs two trade shows per year, two conferences per year. Yeah, we'll talk about that maybe after I'm back. But I had something I wanted to share with you, Shannon, and it's kind of inspired by conversations that we had on Friday's show, and that is, I am a master at avoiding procrastination.

Shannon, is that right?

No, it's false. But. But I'm going to start saying that because that's the way to get there. Like, if I. If I'm very specific about this, but it's specific about a general thing, right? Like, you have to. I've been thinking a lot about these statements, like, you know, my daughter's adoption of the thing from. From shrinking. You know, things always work out for me, and by and large, that becomes true. You. You believe that these things are going to work, so you work towards them, assuming they are going to work. If you assume they're going to fail, you will work towards them in a different way or not work towards them. That's what we were saying last week. And so I am a master at avoiding procrastination. I. I need to be a master at avoiding procrastination because I know that when I finally do the thing that I have been avoiding, whatever the reason, I feel better about it now. Sometimes I feel better and I'm scared. I did something today where I finally sent something off to somebody and I was like, man, why did I wait, like four days to do that? And I know the answer. It's because I've never done this particular thing before. I'm kind of playing in an arena that's new to me. And, and so there's a fear of failure. Right. But it's like if I failed at this thing that I sent off to this guy, it is simply that I have not yet succeeded at this. And I am practicing. Right.

That's the frame. That's the frame right there.

That's the frame. And that was the first thing that came to mind was like, no, I haven't failed. I just haven't succeeded yet. And then the next thought that came to my head was, I am a master at avoiding procrastination because I know this trick, right? That like, oh, I can avoid that. But then I thought, well, I just need to keep saying that and. And eventually I will be a master at avoiding procrastination.

It's true. It's true. It's almost like an affirmation.

Almost.

I think it's almost kind of a mind hack.

It's definitely a mind hack.

Yeah. Yeah. And I, I actually, you know, in our show ideas, I just put in there something for you down the. An episode down the road that I think diving into this concept is really interesting and some tools that you can use, you know, to get you reminded of this stuff. But I completely agree with your idea of why aren't you doing it? Trying to figure out that the why. And of course, well, it's good to.

Know, like, as listeners know, I am in pursuit of self awareness. I'm not there yet. Right. But I understand that it is something that is valuable to me. And so I'm constantly sort of dissecting what I do or what I don't do and the why so that I can be aware of. Like, oh, yeah, I'm avoiding this because I'm scared. Okay, well, that's acceptable. I mean, it is. So therefore it's acceptable. But like, I don't need to be scared of this. I haven't done it before. Why would anybody.

I'm scared of. Yeah. Scared of doing it or scared of the result that might come back.

Scared of the result in this particular case. Yeah. And it's like, of course I'm scared of the result.

Me too. Big time. Totally. And the crazy thing is I've been doing this for decades and I coincidentally, I'm trying to do something new and start another, you know, business, if you will, part of my revenue stack and I find the exact same thing. You know, I've been procrastinating on doing this, learning this video tutorial concept for I'm aware months Y.

Months.

And. And I. And I think I know why. And so yesterday, I finally did one. And now the tool. The tool I wanted to use, and I was just over complicating it. Yeah. I didn't do it related to what we wanted.

Of course, we overcomplicate this thing that I avoided for four or five days. Shannon. It took me 25 minutes to put this thing together. Now I know it's not finished. I know it's not perfect. That was like. This was a softball that this guy asked me. He's like, put it together. You start it. I will then work it with you, but you got to start it. And I'm like, oh, okay.

But I thought one of our tricks.

That we talk about, I'm like, oh, it's gonna take. It's gonna take me an afternoon to do this. It did not. It took me 25 minutes, you know, and it was pretty easy. I already knew what to do.

Yeah. The key is trying to step back and. But things kind of have a. A shelf life for me, in my experience.

Yes.

Some things I'm like, well, why aren't I getting to this? And maybe I need to learn more. Like, yesterday, part of getting this thing done that I've been trying to do was to learn a new piece of software. And I know a little bit about this software. It's ConvertKit. We're using it for Business brain as well. But doing things like segmenting audiences and building workflows, all this kind of stuff, man, I was just beating my head against the wall, and I kept putting it off. And as I talked about last week, my procrastination trick is to then go into something else. Not to stop working, but go to another project. But I, you know, finally powered through it yesterday, got out my first newsletter with a video kind of thing. And now, like you said, you're just like, man, that was so silly.

I walked up every single time I procrastinate something and then finally do it. It's like, God, like, why?

Yeah, why? I walked up to my office this morning. I was coming up the stairs, and I said, you think they'd be upset if I did another video and sent it out to them today? Yeah, yeah. Because I was so like, I got it, I got it, I got it. But, yeah, yeah, man, but it's good. Self awareness.

I. Yeah, with self awareness and just like, you know, mind hacks, which we've been talking about in the show for eight years, just like, doing things to convince us to do the things we want to do like your whole thing about tell the story that. Or you know, write the story that you want to tell. Because then you get there and live it. Yeah, live it. And I am a master at avoiding procrastination. All right, look, if you own a small business, you know that unexpected costs can arise at any time. But Zinch understands that the unexpected is an expected part of running a business. So why wait around for a sudden impact to your business? Check out our sponsor Zinch today to see how you can become prepared and stay prepared. And this is because Zinch is a direct lender tailored to small and medium sized businesses like us. Cinch makes loans simple, fast and flexible and can approve up to $250,000 in under two days. When you partner with Zinch, you won't have to wait months for a traditional bank loan. Whether you're dealing with things like big bills that you didn't expect, a second computer that died in two weeks, or the costs that come from expanding your workforce, Zinc can help you with what you need when you need it. Their specialists work with you and help you choose the best solutions for your needs. And there are no commissions or third party approvals. Right. So Zinge can give you better rates, faster approvals, and keep your info secure. Don't wait for an emergency. Apply today with Zinch for a limited time. Zinc is waiving application fees for you because you're a business brain listener. That's a $250 value for minutes of your time. So just go straight to the special URL that we have. Financing that works.com Again, that's financing that works.com loans made or arranged pursuant to a California Finance Lenders law license. And our thanks to Zinch for sponsoring this episode. All right, you've. You've been digging back in over on whatever that we call it now. Twix. Twitter X. I think Twix is. Twix is. Twix is not just for kids. Wait, that's. That's true. Sorry, yes.

Different thing. It's Candy Barb still.

That's right. Yeah.

I have, you know, I. So I have a confession to make. I. I've had a Twitter x account since 2008.

Okay.

Up until about a month ago, I. I think I'd sent two or three tweets and I had maybe, I don't know, 20 people to follow me.

Sure.

So. And I stayed away.

Nowhere to go. Nowhere to go but up from there.

Exactly. I stayed away from it because a few times I had dipped into it, there was so much Vitriol. And, you know, it's like, whoa, this is crazy. These people are nuts.

And.

And it was a different experience. But you have always told me one thing that I. I start. I remembered is you're like, well, you can create, you know, create your own feed. Block out that garbage and make it something productive.

Okay. What's fascinating to me is you're coming into this at a time. Well, I don't want to say there's always been sort of the. The vitriol on Twitter, but. Yeah, but certainly, you know, at some point after 2008 and some point before today, it, like, it arrived and it had been there for a while. And now many people would argue it has quadrupled in the last year, but you're coming into it, like, almost fresh and saying, no, no, it's better now because it's credible.

I don't know if I actually tuned it.

Yeah.

Yes. I don't know if it's better or worse. My use of it.

Correct.

Is way more productive. And I would say getting back involved or getting involved in. In Twitter X and. And connecting with the right people is already and will have a dramatic impact on my life.

See?

No question about it.

Also, you know what? I am a master at avoiding procrastination.

You are. And that's right.

That's right.

And so the thing about it is, Twitter, is if you tune your feed correctly, and I have a couple of tips on this that I've learned, if you tune your feed correctly, you can create a masterclass for yourself on any topic you want to learn about.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, this has been my thing on Twitter. I mean, mostly my intentional involvement with doing that on Twitter has not been to create what I want. It's been to avoid what I don't want. Right. And. And I.

Yes.

Very, very careful not to click like or reply or anything on any content that does appear that is not to my liking. Like, I don't want any political content on Twitter. I don't care if it's stuff I agree with or disagree with. I just. I know better than to engage with that, because when I do, then that's what happens to my feed. So I want to stay away. Yes. Yeah.

So let me. I want to talk.

Works in the opposite direction, too. Yeah.

Correct. I want to talk about three parts of this that made maybe four that have made the difference for me. Number one is have multiple accounts. Oh. Critically important.

I have just an account for a business, and you personally. But you have multiple personal accounts.

Yes. Because that you can tune your feed if I want to dump, jump back in and talk about some garbage about whatever, you know, I don't know.

Yeah. If you wanted, if you wanted something somewhere where you could compartmentalize for me, say, the politics. I don't, by the way.

Correct. Either.

But if I wanted that, I, I. Your advice is create a separate account for that so that you can control when you're. Oh, yes, right. I like it.

Part B of having a second account is you should also have. And maybe this is just your second account, but you should have an anonymous account.

Okay.

Because the anonymous account, and this is not to get involved in fighting and trolling or whatever, but the anonymous account, in my experience allowed me to, to. It helped me on my personal account too, on my brand, my name, Shannon Jean. The anonymous account kind of opened it up and allowed me to talk, be more detailed and explain things that I probably would not have explained in detail on my personal account because maybe I felt like it was bragging or boasting or something like that. But when someone engaged with you and started really asking granular questions with the anonymous account, I just broke it down and was really open. I was like, wow, this is really liberating. Very liberating. And when I went back to my personal account, I felt more comfortable. I said, well, you know, I can talk about some of this stuff on the personal account too. It doesn't really matter. So that has been a tool that has helped me a lot is having an anonymous account in. That's, that's going in, you know, concurrently with my personal brand account.

So you, and you haven't. What's the right way to say this? You haven't seen any cross pollution.

None.

Okay. I, I always wondered if, if, you know, if, if I'm logged in on my phone to three different accounts, I may or may not have an anonymous account on Twitter.

Sure.

We're going to link yours from the show notes, but I don't have one. So we're not going to link my anonymous account. But yeah, you, you really.

The thing I always do is before. Now I'm going to tell you why I don't tweet as much.

I'm.

But I will tell you how I engage in a second. But you have to check and be sure you're commenting.

Oh, yeah.

Liking from the right account or you'll screw up this whole system.

Oh, of course. Yeah. I'm used to that because I have separate accounts for each of the podcasts that I do.

Right.

We had a separate Mac Observer Account, which of course we sold with the business. But I had. We have one for business Brain, Biz Brain show. Because we can't say business brain, it's too long. Uh, so we have Bizbrain show on Twitter X. We also, I have like macgeek Gab and giggab podcast. But yeah, okay. All right.

Okay. So the next part of this whole thing that has just kind of blown my mind and everybody around me is tired of me talking about already is using lists on Twitter.

Absolutely.

I mean, the power of keeping lists. Now what I mean by list, it's just adding accounts to lists about specific topics. Like I want to follow people that are into short term vacation rentals. Okay. For, for instance, as I have a business that owns some properties that way. Sure. But I don't. I. And, but I want to be able to dip in and focus just on that topic. And the only way I know how to do it, the way I found it is with the lists is when you hit it, it's all those accounts that you want to see about a specific topic. Again, you're creating a master class for yourself and you say, okay, today I want to learn about. You pick software programming or, you know, whatever and small business, whatever topic you want. You create a list that you know will help define and get down to that granular thing of what you want. And it's a huge time saver and it works fantastic.

And you can choose. When you make lists on Twitter, you can choose to make them private, where you're the only one that can see the members and even the existence of the list. But you can also make them public for other people to follow if you want to be a resource for others.

So.

Yeah, yeah, interesting.

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. Okay, and now lastly, so I started, I had like 20 followers, I don't know, a month ago or something. And I'm looking at. And one thing you'll realize once you start putting some effort into Twitter all of a sudden. So there's a two columns, there's a following section where these are just accounts you follow. So it's fine tuned to who you want to see. But then there's another section called for you, which is the algorithmic, hey, Twitter thinks, you know, if you follow this real estate guy or just this realtor, you know, lady, you may find this person helpful. And, and I do find it very helpful and it helps you build that list. But in the, the, the system I'm trying to create is to grow my followers on a regular basis. So I can offer them, you know, I can interact with them. I love the collaboration. If that eventually leads to some sort of transactional relationship, a digital product, a course, great, that's awesome. And that would be great. But that's not the end all. So in about four weeks I've grown my followers to. What am I at right now? 126.

That's, that's, you've added. I mean that's about 100. Yeah, that's great.

And I, and so, but you also, you get, you start to get approached by all these coaches and take my course and follow my business.

Uh oh, did I lose you, Shannon? Oh, you're back.

Am I still here?

Yeah, now. You're back now. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Oh, good, good. One of the best tips I would. If you're trying to grow your business account, your personal account, whatever it is, if you only have 126 followers, like no one's going to read your tweets. It just doesn't. Or your posts as we call them now, it, it, you just don't have a wide enough audience to get followed, you know, and so focus on other accounts and you need to live in the comments. So go into the comments. When someone's talking about something you know something about, or if you have a question from someone topic, you go into the comments and start talking. Now if it's your business, maybe people, maybe you're a pool supply person or you know, pressure washer guy, whatever, there's all kinds of people up there talking and asking questions about that stuff. Every topic you could imagine. It's just like Reddit. So you have a chance to get in there, make a comment. Oh, I would, I like to do it this way. This is my experience. And, or ask a question. Have you, you know, how would you fix this? How would you do this? That engagement is how you really, those fall, you're going to start growing those followers because you're, you're kind of hijacking or, or what do they call it? Non permissive mentoring. Right. You're, you are getting in the feed these accounts and you should look at how many followers they have. Somebody has 2,000 followers, 5,000 followers. Those are, those are ripe. If somebody has 25,000, 50,000, a hundred thousand followers, engaging is pretty difficult and you get lost. But a thousand to five thousand followers, when you start commenting, you'll watch, your follower account will increase and your engagement will increase and you'll find people that comment, you're like, that's really useful. I'm gonna Follow them or I'm gonna add them to this list. So it's fascinating. The key thing is, I know everybody's reading in the press, you know, Elon's crazy. Not crazy, but he's just his own person and doing things his own way. You should be on Twitter for your business, for your personal brand, and you should learn how to use it, because I don't think we want to bet against Elon. And I think this platform is going to evolve into something much different than it is now. And you kind of have your chance now. It's like a reset. You can get in on the ground.

It's a little bit of a reset happening, Right? That's for sure. You know, it's interesting. I was. I was talking to somebody the other day that. It's interesting you say you don't want to bet against Elon. I was talking to somebody the other day who knows that I've always been a supporter of Elon's business efforts. Right. Because, like, he's had a lot of success and he's done a lot of things that I thought were stupid, maybe is the right word time wrong. Like, you know, when he launched the first X.com PayPal, you know, decades ago, I was like, why would we use the Internet for commerce?

What?

This is so stupid. Obviously, I was wrong, right? What he's doing. And we can look and look at Tesla, Tesla, we can look at the SpaceX. But what is often forgotten is Starlink. Right? This is bringing. Right. See, like, most people forget that this is, like, this changed Internet for people in rural America. Oh, it changed Internet for people running, you know, their lives from, like, RVs. And it also changed the Internet for Ukraine. And that's also fascinating, right?

Yeah, it is. It is.

No, and it was just like, he sees things differently than the rest of us. I also think he, for whatever reason, maybe he's on the spectrum. I'm not a doctor. I don't know. But, yeah, he's socially awkward. We are all. I am also socially. I don't want to say we're all socially awkward. I am also socially awkward. I don't sound like I am on the show, but I really, trust me, I am. I think for him, fame is dangerous.

And yeah, yeah, running talked about this.

Yeah. Running a social network might not be the best idea, but to your point, I was, again, I was having this conversation with a friend. I will never bet against Elon. Like, he's going to get some things wrong, but more often than not in a big way. He's going to get things right. So Twitter X may or may not be the thing he gets right. I don't know. But I'm not betting against him.

And it will be just very different in a very different form than it is now. Yeah. So for your business, for your personal stuff, you know, you have, I'd like to get in on the ground floor, learn some get, learn something new, you know, tell us how you use it. Are you, you know, do you generate deals? Are you selling things on, on the platform? Do you stay away from it, you know, feedback@businessbrain.show. there's a lot of commerce and deal making going on in the real estate sections in Twitter, that's for sure.

Oh, interesting. All right, check it out. Links to us and the show for x.com twitter.com are in the show notes at BusinessBrain Show. Go check it out. Go follow us there and make sure you check out financing that works.com and save that 250 bucks. Get yourself set up before you need to be set up. Keep living that charmed life and we'll see you next time.