August 2, 2010 – 12:19 pm
2 days ago, the WCR Mid-West Window Cleaning Convention was held in Iowa City, IA (It was awesome, by the way, but more to come about that later).
As an attendee, it was great to finally meet so many members of WCR, as well as from my own private WCMM marketing community. I snapped a photo of us WCMM folks who happened to be on hand, as seen above. (There are only around 80-90 WCMM members worldwide, so it was cool to see 6 of us there, together, in Iowa!)
The gentleman on the far right is Jesse Martin, owner of Green Window Cleaning out in Sedona, Arizona. He happened to be in Illinois, so he could pop over and join us at this WCR event.
Having only spoken with Jesse online before (and maybe once on the phone, I’m drawing a blank on that right now), I had assembled a picture in my mind as to how tall he was in real life. I had seen a picture of his smiling face before, but that’s it.
The man is tall.
Taller than me, anyway (tall is one of those “relative” things, for sure).
Tall enough for me to have instantly registered “Wow, you’re taller than I expected!”
Lesson: Our online personality is easy to manipulate and get creative with. We can paint ourselves as an expert, talk about how awesome we are, claim to deliver this and that, and pretty much take executive creative control of any identity we wish to dream up for ourselves. As Alex Lambrinides of WCR put it this past weekend, ‘people can be their character online’.
The problem is, eventually we might have to meet some humans face-to-face.
If we were selling eBooks and digital stuff, we may successfully dodge that issue indefinitely. We could simply avoid human contact, remain sequestered in our secret digital lair, and continue to fulfill the role of any online character we wish to manufacture.
(As an aside, I have met many people in real life that are quite outspoken and in-your-face online, but very quiet, timid and mouselike in person. I have also met many people who are almost whisper-quiet online, yet gregarious and super-friendly in the real world.)
The problem is, we aren’t selling eBooks, we’re selling window cleaning. And eventually, you’re going to have to meet your customers in real life, and perform the actual window cleaning service.
Are you making big, bold claims about your professionalism online?
You better have a crisp uniform and friendly demeanor when you meet them in real life.
Are you shouting from the rooftops about your expertise?
You better deliver in real life, bucko.
Remember, talk is cheap. The internet is essentially a giant game of Second Life, and if you’re taking some liberties with your avatar, then consider this post your wake-up call.
Kevin
P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you’re going to love my brand-new 255-page marketing textbook.
P.S.S. I read a similar post to this from Seth Godin a week or two ago. So true.
P.S.S.S. The rest of the guys in the photo above also surprised me when I met each of them in real life for the first time. For the good. Even more friendly, kind, gentle, personable that I expected. You can probably get a nuanced hint of that from their smiling faces in the photo above.
Good times.
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Four or five years ago, I first chatted on the phone with a window cleaning business owner named Paul McQuillan. He lived out in Minnesota, and much like me, was very serious about how to market his own window cleaning company.
