Steve Mills - Online Entrepreuership with the SPOKE system

Vibrant and alive and full of purpose

I have spent the last few weeks locked into a battle between me and some troublesome code. I am getting the online directory up online for the revamped Livingnow.com.au website, and it has been giving me a few issues. But through perseverance I can see the light at the end of the development tunnel, and can now start to focus on getting some new interesting projects on the go, including a new social bookmarking site, and another cracking idea for a new form of social network which is in collaboration with the excellent Seamus Ennis.

I have also been thinking over the past week (through a code induced haze) that this site is going to be a central asset to the success of these and other projects, as I want to use it as a central hub to introduce people that I meet on my real life and digital travels to all of my projects. The development of a personal brand is one of the most important things that we as blog reading, digital literate people can do.

If you are in anyway half serious about getting your work out there or if (more importantly I think) that you have new and original ideas then get yourself a personal blog. Make it the focus point of all of your online efforts, a hub where people can find out about you and your work. Put it all up there, your social media profiles, your writing, links to your work, links to things you are selling. Give people handles that they can grab onto you and connect with you.

On Rebel Zen, Seamus and I  are always talking about letting your “real self” shine through, and that is where you should be headed with your macro and micro blogging efforts. Show us more of the real you, and you will make your online efforts vibrant and alive and full of purpose.

Chasing the Thread of Thought

The internet is one of the most brilliant things that ever to emerge in the history of reality. Sure, that is a pretty sweeping statement, but when you really sit down and have a look at what the internet REALLY is, it is absolutely mind-blowing.

It is a way to collect the combined intelligence of billions of the most complex things EVER developed in the Universe (as far as we can presently see) and allow each of them to communicate this intelligence to each other in ways never before seen. It is the over mind, a way of joining all individual minds together, here in the physical world.

But it does more than just connect minds, it also connects IDEAS.
By amassing so much data together in such a close proximity, we can see connections, similarities and patterns in the way the real world that have never been seen before. All over the planet, at this very moment there are people making scientific, philosophical, spiritual and unclassifiable discoveries that are absolutely amazing.

You don’t hear about them a lot in the mainstream news, or even on other blogs and alternative media on the net. But they are out there. Small rays of hope and inspiration, insights and theories that shake your conception of reality to pieces.

It is my hope for this blog that I can highlight some of these ideas, and my own to a wider audience. To chase some of these threads of thought back to their very beginnings, and unravel them into coherent concepts and stories.

One such thread that I have currently been following is that of physicist and theorist Nassim Haramien theresonanceproject.org, who has some very interesting theories concerning energy, other dimensions and the interconnectedness of consciousness.
It really does amaze everyday how mundane reality looks to the average western world citizen, but how incredibly complex, and exciting it really is.
Just to illustrate that point, here is one youtube video that you should watch.

Don’t worry if the physics goes over your head, if this has captured your interest go to YouTube and hunt down the rest of the videos. They are well worth a look.

I can see a time in the near future where a grand unified theory of physics gets mixed with our present knowledge of consciousness, and also with theories about what exactly Information is.
In fact, I think a lot of what has been termed spirituality, and controlled and interpreted by religions over the past 6000 years may soon be seen to have some foundations in scientific fact.

The world of present cutting edge scientific theory looks nothing like worldview presented to us by the media, government and scientific education of all but the highest level. String theory, Brane theory, advances in information science and quantum theory. The present state of these leave the idea that we are living in a solid, material,  3 dimensions of space and one dimension of time universe on very shaky foundations.
This is not science fiction; this is not wishy dreamy new age platitudes. This is fact.

SPOKE - A New Model For Online Business

Been a bit quiet on here of late, but I assure you it is not without good reason.

I have been working on a new model of business, one that I am sure you can benefit from. It is a model that some people have been following with great success for decades, but is only coming into mainstream view now as everyone becomes super connected, has instant access to unimaginable resources of knowledge and skill for creating websites and knowledge products online become easier to learn and more widespread.

Hey, and it even has an acronym. SPOKE

The SPOKE system is going to present people with a way of developing sustainable online businesses, that provide long
lasting income (some of it passive) and creating meaningful work. It is about utilizing the skills that you currently have to start to
break the cycle of trading dollars for hours, and which skills that you should be developing to be successful in an ever changing world.
It is about  making the most of this connected, fast paced world that we live in, and using it  to support rather then overwhelm you.

A NEW VIEWPOINT

Over the last few years I have studied and worked closely with many bloggers, entrepreneurs, business managers and internet marketers. I have also lately been doing a lot of work with social media marketing and consulting, as well as studying a lot of material about social networks, the future of the internet and business, entrepreneurship and work.

While doing a review of my business plan last month a number of these pieces started to click together, and a picture began to form out of the confusing puzzle that we call our modern working life. I saw how it was possible to have meaningful work, escape the 9-5 office based - always the same drudgery and also make a decent living. It is like freelancing, contracting or even “making money online” but more then that. I will develop and share the SPOKE system with you over the next few months

REDESIGN TIME

Also I think I need to modernise this blog (once again) and develop it into a world class resource of information. Design for this site is a continual process with me, but inspiration has come in short bursts. While design isn’t everything, it is important that you quickly convey what the site is about and your level of professionalism as soon as people hit the page.

Quick Between Posts Update

Sorry for the delay in posting on here but life has been hectic, and I have had  lot of projects on the boil. Oh yea, and I started using Twitter which has kept me busy. If you want to follow me click the link.

For those that have been reading this site for a while, you will notice that I am currently redesigning it (yet again) to give it a simpler interface. I am planning on publishing a lot more material, specifically about the advantages and massive opportunities, but also about the pitfalls and traps of using social media to promote your brand.

Stress Of Connection Culture

I just saw an article today on the news.com.au website about the effect of email on productivity

The main thrust of the article is shown below.

“THE average employee is productive at work for just four hours a day due to a flood of disruptive emails and phone calls, according to a new study.
And the biggest culprit, say workers, is the constant interruption from internal emails.
The lost productivity is costing business billions of dollars a year and also taking a toll on workers’ health, with three quarters complaining of stress from too many distractions in the office, the Daily Mail reports. “

Now this is not a new phenomenon, there have been reports coming out like this very frequently for the last 10 years. As soon as business started to give their staff email and internet access the phenomena of continuous partial attention was born. There are so many things that you need to do, so many different streams of information that need to be monitored, and so many interruptions that you never get into a “flow” state. This leads with difficulty concentrating on complex tasks and working on large projects.

The thing is though, that as we move into an information economy this way of working is the norm. My job actually requires me to be monitoring and reacting to many different information streams, to be writing email, to be answering social media messages. The ability to be able to gather, synthesize and output large and diverse streams of information is going to be the skill to have for the next decade. The trick is to be able to do this, and then be able to “switch off” at some stage and manage your stress levels, interact with your “offline community” family and look after your mental and physical health.

There are a number of both subtle and large psychological changes that seem to occur in the always connected mind, from a mild nagging feeling that you are missing out on something if you are not online, to stress attacks from the overwhelming information. It can be as addicting as it can be empowering.

There is a current that is flowing through the blogging community at the moment as to whether social networking and microblogging on twitter is a distraction or if it is a vital piece of work to be integrated into the day. I think we need to explore what are the costs and benefits to connecting technologies, in the short term to our stress levels, ability to concentrate and ability to switch of, but also in the long term to beneficial results on career, connection, community and learning.

It is very early days for this technology, and we are just seeing the first glimpses of our future as a connected world.