if not stated some of my photos are from unsplash a free site for images, also you can grab some cool images from nomad.pictures a site i run with @dayleeo to get pictures out of the camera roll and onto the web

can i suggest something chilled playing in the background as you read this post? just fire it up and keep going, it's live 24/7 and i'm sure they will be playing something lovely.

i see you’re posts, in a few seconds i can see the effort level, i can see your experience level, i can discover and extract the sentiment, what you’re looking to gain, the quick wins, the ‘gotta post today to show i’m involved’ copy and paste youtube videos, the downloaded templated hacked together in the hope to take part and say ‘me too’ — technology has given us an incredible breadth of self expression and creativity. it’s also given us a platform to do our worst work because time to turn it around is measured in milliseconds, the fastest wins, those that can drive the hype train win.

the rushed product through the pr department of an unfinished product that’s not been tested yet or even have stock of, the brand advocate on youtube telling you it’s awesome and they haven’t even taken it out of the box yet let alone done a dust to dust ratio analyse of what impact that product may have on the planet at the ‘end of life’ - you see, we are fickle, us humans. we have pushed for the new now, we wanted it yesterday, today will do. oh, thanks amazon, prime me up.

for me value has deep and profound impact on me. i’m constantly trying to achieve parity. it’s a strong inner desire to unpick, unpack or decompress my idea of what that exchange is in a realtime, always connected society. how do you package it for a trans media audience that is secretly screaming to go faster yet want liberty and correctness. we are the stack it high and sell it cheap of digital packets. we want to feel the story, consume it’s essence and be out onto the next thing that tickles our fancy.

i wanted to apply it to steemit today and maybe speak about what happens to me when i see my own posts and those of others on the platform, what blogging to me looks like through my head after decades of being a brand advocate for brands and agencies, how i decipher what’s good, hype, stack it high selling or actually something new and surprising, why i follow effort and determination over cookie cutter lackluster data farmed posts and how you can maybe learn a little about yourself and others to make better content in the process. my own included ;)

depth of research

in a real time economy i feel that legacy can be seen as a history with no relevancy in the moment. just hire the guy or girl with the most current hype, we have swapped legacy and wisdom of years of focus on a skill or talent for followers and financial status. the best girl or guy for the job often doesn’t get hired. age, sex, colour, etc all factors when the system and the market decides.

if the market is a hyped up raver train of drunken teens trying to fight society you can end up with the wrong people in the wrong jobs, doing the wrong things to an audience that believes you have the helm and you’re steering the ship. in my brief time as a brand advocate i learned so much about the supply and demand of the story. the alliances that are made between product, brand, advocates and the outcome desired.

research into something is not just a nice to have, it’s the foundation stone to becoming a peer in an industry, if you’r a headphone blogger that’s been using headphones twenty years and i’ve seen the technology and the materials change the the cost come down and the marketplace change for a different audience you bring a depth of information and clarity, the ‘360’ as i call it to the fore, you invested time, energy and effort into learning all the facets of something you love, like a fast car, or a certain style of music - the depth of research drives a self of personal validation we understand that topic, product or brand better.

when we research something and prove multi passionate information on something we bring something new to our potential viewing audience, we trigger those value centres in people, they read more intently, you become some one they can ask questions of, they might even know why they see you as a peer, but a value triggers in their mind. it’s like a dormant part of the puzzle was collected and slowly you’re building up your value chips and investment in the information and that person to be of value to you.

when i see a post that is thought out, detailed, explained and researched i feel a sense of mastery, it’s in some way more complete, shows intention and crafting, like a woodsman (or woman) wielding tools to shape materials into objects, it draws on acquired skill which took time to master. mastery normally costs time, time equals your legacy and legacy is what keeps you relevant in a cross referenced ideas and talents driven world.

authenticity, time legacy, connectedness

fake it to make it. i see it everywhere. don’t you? the dodgy twitter profile header with a marketer screaming out to make you believe they are THE INFLUENCER, the need for group validation in a saturated and hyped up marketplace as people live out their lack of legacy in the hope that they can level up without effort and trick those without the ability to cross reference.

if they can just fake it enough they can get by, leaving a wake of misinformation and just buzzword vomit behind. it’s hard to know these days who’s doing the work and who’s just outsourcing the version of themselves they want you to believe. it’s work itself to discover this of course and that’s where the apathy comes in, we want it now, it sounds right so let’s retweet it, let’s share it, let’s tag on the fact that we think that way too but never had the inclination to post it first. right? wrong.

while technology has brought us such wonderful things it has also bought along an ability to disconnect our authenticity centres in exchange for buttons that side step true connection, how many posts have you shared ore retweeted because what they stand for sounds like something you would do if you could get your lazy ass of the sofa to actually get out into everyday life and take part?

what makes a business man of thirty years selling metal to another country jump on a plane and meet someone face to face for the first time? why not use video chat, why waste fuel and consume resources to meet someone in the physical and shake hands and stare into the eyes of another human being, what are we doing when we collect these subtle nuances that we give off, how do we decide on what’s authentic? and for how long?

styling and relevancy

fashion and the catwalk has always fascinated me. stunningly slim, slinky clothes horses walking down a single focused track, eyes on the track from both sides, people dressed in status and entitlement. material trading in realtime, lifestyle and magical notions of a lifestyle crafted in visual material, it’s an interesting thing to watch, it’s interesting to see the vanity of it all.

the way a model is styled, how they are curated, how the items are relevant to the data sets of global trend, what’s on trend and what’s not, are you in or are you out, are you switched on to that sub carrier wave of the visual ideals that someone suggests have a value, today. which in years to come will become vintage and therefore legacy.

what is it about the notion of timeless that allows something to have permission to never not be relevant, how can the work you do here on the steemit platform for instance be something that will always be useful, relevant and ooze style? - it’s in you’re process, fashion is no different, cross referencing cuts, materials, new ways of working, shared process, technology inclusion. how do you design and style a product or a service or a brand to never not be relevant — i would suggest it’s in the story.

servicing a need, scratching an itch

fidget spinners! i mean, come on. three roller-skate bearings in a piece of plastic, really? opening the door up to the knee shakers, the salt shaker movers, the park in the straight lines of a car park better people, the product opened up the dialog for people who fidget, we can discuss it more, it scratched an itch we had, to refocus our minds away onto something that would maybe in some way relieve our anxiety yet.

it becomes a trend because it’s like a ground swell moment because it’s everywhere, when it’s everywhere and everyone is doing it, it’s gotta be worth trying? that tactile, memory remembering childhood interaction of spinning park toys, and spinning tops as a child - legacy activators. smart marketing, terribly bad for the environment product, i guess someone had a lot of bearing they needed to shift. .. ;)

becoming the mouthpiece for conversation

sometimes people just need a mouthpiece to talk through, lack of confidence, lack of legacy, not detailed on the topic. i’ve done this many times because people wanted a fall guy, a social stuntman to take the flack of the heat of a conversation but it does often lead to opening other doors, someone has to be front and centre, and let’s be honest you’re never gonna be everything to everybody so you might as well align to the ones that choose your ability to explore your venerability instead of misguided information that you really don’t believe in or execute good intent on.

i want to have a global conversation about value and greed here on steemit. i think it’s a needed discussion, what you feel like when you feel invested in and valued, how the distribution of value is becoming more a digital playing field where being connected and informed moves the indicators one way or another. i’m interested in where we suppress our own greed over another and we start to disconnect. what are the triggers, what frustrates you so you don’t take part. these are interesting areas of life are for me because that’s where i believe the most work can be done to be better to each other in society.

value is subjective, explore you’re own motivators.

one person’s value is not another’s often times, you might value your ideas of success on a big house, fast car, incredible career, material items you own, you might require the validation of the masses that in some way you bring more value than someone else to feel that you’re a peer, i simply don’t know. i see so many variables in people, triggers that happen because of legacy, location and conditions that i could never fully comprehend.

but i do know this, the value exchange i feel from financial rewards, the glance of a loved one, the debate on why or why not, the internal rush in my stomach and the neurons firing in my brain when my face and compassionate centres lights up because i feel valued, that’s a priceless feeling. value, being valued, sharing values are fundamental motivators to live instead of exist, i’m constantly in consideration of that exchange.

remember that time as a teenager when you got the promotion, when someone stopped being the usual person you had them pegged at, the little box you had signed off and put them in and they surprised you, the way is stopped you in you’re tracks and made you re-evaluate? that’s what your own value should bring. traffic stopping sentiment brought up from your very core, question those core beliefs, learn to articulate them.

your process is your verification

i read a post the other day from a graphic designer here on steem, he showed his working process, sketches, background and went on to tell me that in the ‘real world’ of clients that he would charge quite a lot of money for it. he was setting out what he believed was his value. now it’s not up to me if i consider him to bring value or not, it’s just that he put a price on it that he expect’s to earn.

what was clever (and maybe a little devious in my mind) was that he showed his process to reinforce his position. he showed the time served, you were paying for his experimenting time, his hours or sketching to get to the end game, you see most crafts people don’t get paid for the hours they invest, most uncreative people want to pay for a service and a result, they don’t realise the art and curation and cross referencing part of the art or creative process. they don’t want to pay for that, they want to pay for the bit that gives them value, the bit that makes them look a little bit more polished, we could go back to the fashion example at this stage :)

the verification of your value is in your process, describe it, show it, experiment with it, debate it, optimise it, but absolutely talk about it, share it and find a connection with another person because of it, the value of something is in what it can demonstrate. take steemit for example, you only have to watch the ned talk from steamfest 1 and look at the platform today to see how much of their legacy exists here.

speed vs quality vs need

in true daft punk style we want everything yesterday, amazon prime brings it tomorrow, others want to bring it today, now, soon, fast — those that cultivate the secrete sauce of speed, quality and need in a timely manner will win the value exchange. the realtime social media tender of value exchange, the analog version for humans of the steemit upvote if you will.

desire for internal story acquisition

it’s your life, you’re internal story. you get what you give, you’re a moment ready to be acquired by value if you let it. it takes work, physical and metal to achieve value in yourself and others and it’s a constant work in progress, you will have moments in life when the exchange is not fair and you’re value will be diminished, mental health and resources may deplete and you will be thrown into a cycle of questioning where you fit.

i suggest in these times that you remember your story of how you got to this day, what value you bought to the world around you, if you’ve not done that yet don’t worry, you have time, you have time to make you’re own mark on the world and i’m certain that you’ll discover through interaction and communication a world of exchange like you’ve never experienced before.

TRUST AND AUTHENTICATION. .

^{http://socialgandalf.com/legacy → pinterest epic wins pinboard → i was a brand advocate for nokia, 1000heads, verisign → won a vloggie for involvement in node666 (san francisco 2006) → on television for time team history hunters 1999 (burton on trent) → sold me.dm to evan williams (twitter) in april 2011 for 5 figures → went to phil campbell, alabama to help repair/recovery/help raise money month after a tornado ripped through the town (was on sky news, bbc news, al jazeeza, nightly news, alabama weather channel?!) → CNN for sxsw 2013 about austin south by southwest event → video chat with robert scoble from rackspace → i was in a music video can you spot me? → won the digital derry contest for 5k euros to kickstart web tv studio → did project work with sleepydog indirectly for nesta (responder) → crowdfunded digital signage concept called the pi street (do it for steem?)}

your upvote, resteem or comment is welcomed. new followers will often be followed back like the one big happy steemit family we are, have a fantastic day. stay safe!