Well I feel as if I am on a journey toward something different which is unfolding a little bit at a time. In my last blog post I shared some insights that  I discovered when listening to a presentation by Julien Smith. At this point I feel I have traveled a little further in my journey but have not yet reached a destination.

As an online marketing and social media consultant I have struggled with my genuine desire to help people learn online strategies that will help them build their business, and at the same time, building my own business. I love helping people, and gladly will do it for free. The conflict is that it is also my business, and the purpose and function of the business is to make money. For me, information is what I have to offer, combined with my experience of what works and doesn’t work when marketing online. I have spent thousands of dollars  investing in my learning, and many hours of “doing it” for myself, often learning by trial and error and expensive mistakes.

When meeting with potential new clients, I find myself giving my valuable information away, before I have made a sale or collected a check for my time and advice. The same thing has happened when I have been asked to speak pro bono, with the goal of making new clients for my business.

Social media has affected the way people do business. The concept of keeping certain information a closely guarded secret in order for a business to have an edge on their competitors, is changing. In its place there is a growing sense of working not as a one-person business, but building alliances and working together even with immediate competitors. When people get together and help one another, everyone succeeds. In order to do this I think you have to change your mindset from ‘there is not enough business for everyone to have a share,’ to’ there is more than enough to go around.’  2009 for me was a year when I really got to understand the importance of mindset and how self sabotaging it can be, and began a process of a 180 degree turn around in my mindset and thinking.

Yesterday I was on a weekly mastermind group call. Everyone on the call had participated in a course on social media in the summer, and had kept in touch with weekly calls to support and help one another. In recent weeks a suggestion of having a contest has been discussed, with  points awarded for various levels of participation in helping and supporting one another. Due to our different personalities the thought of a contest spurred and motivated some people into action, however those in the group who are not motivated by competition, were reluctant to be involved in a contest which involved one person being a winner or contributing toward a financial reward.

On the call last night a totally different slant was put on this proposition. If you take away the word “contest” and think rather of it in the light of a way of being kept accountable in achieving goals and taking action, and at the same time helping and supporting other people in their goals, a totally different dynamic  comes into play. In this ‘contest’ you can earn points for writing a blog post for your blog, however if you write a blog post about someone else’s blog you get far more points. Points can be earned by commenting and promoting other people’s content and online projects, as well as doing things for other members of the group in terms of helping and supporting them.

This morning I followed a link from Facebook that led to a site called Third Tribe Marketing. The concept of a tribe first came from  the book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin. A tribe works together to support others in the tribe and so contribute to their success. Then 2 hours I then discovered a different mention of this concept in my Facebook Inbox with an invitation to a TribeMastermindforum webinar call where building a tribe and participating in a community while at the same time being taught valuable information was being sold.

An epiphany is percolating! I see the power of helping one another and I’m curious to explore the tribe concept further. I decided to become a member of the Third Tribe site because I want to learn more. Interestingly since our mastermind call yesterday I’ve been contacted by two members who need my help. Normally the information that I have shared with them would be something that would generate revenue for my business, but it didn’t matter as something larger is happening within me. It seems that when you give to others inevitably you will receive in some way, but at the same time this should not be a motivation for giving. I’m reminded of the quote  by Zig Ziglar

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want. ”

So I’m going to read Seth Godin’s book( yes it was published in 2008 and so maybe I’m a bit behind), and follow on this journey that I’ve started, to make real connections with great people and support them in whatever way I can.

If you’ve learned something about the ‘Tribe” concept, please comment on this post and give us all more insight .