Dear Techies and Technophobes: You’re Both Missing the Point

By Caleb Scoville - Expert Interviewed by Paulette Ensign this month

In this day and age, it seems that the world is divided into two huge cultures: techies and technophobes. Techies are obsessed with gear, software and always on the leading edge of technology at any cost. They tend to throw money at their problems, constantly investing in the latest gadget, thinking that it will solve all of their problems. Their biggest problem is that they often focus on the medium of delivery and perfecting their products’ aesthetics rather than primarily focusing on content and value. They often alienate people who are less tech-savvy.

Technophobes convince themselves that they are too stupid, inexperienced or too old to learn new technologies. They too fall into the trap that gear and software are vital for success, but instead of being excited by new technological developments, they are scared off by them and end up not creating anything because they fear making a fool of themselves, breaking something or otherwise doing something wrong.

Aside from these archetypal differences, techies and technophobes also run their businesses very differently.

Techies tend to try to do everything themselves, over compensating any weaknesses they might have with new gadgets and toys they convince themselves are needed for their success.

Technophobes tend to either get scared of new ideas or developments and revert back to what is comfortable or abdicate everything they think their business needs to the nearest “expert” without the slightest clue of how it will work or cost. This often leads to disaster because they are not in the driver’s seat of the business and are left to the mercy of someone who calls himself an expert, but may or may not actually know what he is talking about.

My clients tend to fall into the technophobe category, but many of my colleagues and associates are classic techies.

Here are some words of advice for technophobes:

1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
   It’s important to understand what you want to accomplish, but you don’t have to know how to perform every single related task.
2. Take action and correct as you go.
   You’re better off doing something imperfectly and achieving partial results than simply stewing in your own juices, paralyzed and unable to make anything happen.
3. Don’t let your technophobia be an excuse for failure!
   It’s never too late to learn. I know plenty of folks over 50 who are making great money online. Sure, they’ve had to pick up some new skills, but it didn’t kill them.

And lastly, some words of advice to my “techie friends”:

1. Always keep your ideal client’s interest at heart.
   You may love talking about your new toys or how all the nuts and bolts of a new product, service or program work, but when you dump all this minutia onto someone who is less technologically inclined than you, you’ll end up scaring away or confusing otherwise eager customers.
2. Remember - creating perceived obsolescence is simply a marketing tactic.
   Don’t be a victim to someone else’s marketing strategy without making sure that it’s working in your favor as well. Being the first kid on the block with the newest iPhone or latest version of Photoshop is quite expensive and isn’t usually all it’s cracked up to be.

Whichever category you fit into – or even if you’re somewhere in between – I hope this podcast will help you strike a healthy, balanced relationship with technology for a more successful and sane life, in and out of business.

And now I’d like to invite you to learn out the 5 simple steps to turn one hour into a successful marketing plan at http://www.northbankaudio.com/teleclass

Caleb Scoville helps consultants, trainers, coaches and service professionals, multiply their impact with information products and audio and video online marketing strategies.

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This is the second of several articles written by this month's expert about creating audio products. What is your starting point with audios? Is it talk first, transcribe later, or the other way around?

Until next time,

Paulette - who is gradually progressing from being a technophobe to an toddler techie

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