I flew out late last week to join Gorgeous in Dallas at the eWomenNetwork annual national conference. I bought the latest Technology Review to read on the flight because the current issue is all about social media and the future of Web 2.0, which is obviously something I’m interested in.

On page 56 is an article about the coming bandwidth crunch and how much video content is passing around the web. One of their examples is a video called Evolution of Dance by a guy named Judson Laipply. They pointed out that this particular video was viewed 87 million times.

Evolution of Dance

Judson Laipply performing the Evolution of Dance

I mention this because the very first speaker of the eWomenNetwork conference was none other than Judson Liapply. Turns out he’s a very entertaining speaker.

His message is pretty straight forward. If you don’t adapt to the rapidly changing nature of our society you’re going to be left behind.

In the social media environment that is especially true. And it turns out that Judson’s video clip has been seen another 5 million times since that Technology review article was penned.

I don’t know what the lead time is on an article for that publication. Regardless it doesn’t seem like the demand for video content is going anywhere but up! Since that’s the case take a moment and check it out for yourself.

Networking in the Middle

The time in Dallas was non-stop analog networking. With something like 2500 women (and about 6 other guys) you can imagine how conversationally focused the event was.

Was it weird being one of the very few guys in attendance? A little I suppose.

But quite frankly it was a good business decision. Starting with the shuttle ride to the hotel from the airport I was able to make several great contacts there with people who are looking to tap into my services to propel their businesses. And their business will propel my own business as well in a win-win situation.

I don’t think I can possibly stress enough how vital analog networking is for folks in our line of work. It can be tempting bore sight on the computer monitor and forget that our businesses are ultimately about people.

Taking the time to connect with some of them in person can do wonders for your bottom line profitability.

Michael Gerber’s E-Myth

One of the last speakers was Michael Gerber, the author of The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It and who knows how many other phenomenal other books.

Chris and Michael Gerber

Michael presented a ton of great information in his talk just like he does in his books. Perhaps the single biggest thing I took away from his talk is that we should be building our businesses for scalability.

If developed correctly our businesses can grow far beyond our own personal abilities. The trick is to develop systems that allow for growth. Then make them simple enough for anyone to follow.

Otherwise your business will forever be dependent on you or on bringing in personalities just like you to keep it going. A personality dependent organization will never be able to reach it’s full growth potential.

I’m about 3/4 of the way through that first book and I recommend it highly for anyone who is serious about building thier business to the point where it can still operate smoothly even if they take some time off for a vacation or whatever.

And to top the whole thing off, Michael Gerber was gracious enough to let Gorgeous snap a picture of me after he signed one of the books we purchased. Good stuff all around.

Oh. Yes. I do see the irony in the fact that it was the rare male speaker at this event that resonated most with me. Go figure.