"You Got The Power" with today's technology—if you use it correctly!

"Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems."

~ Rene Descartes

"You got the power" has really been my phrase of 2010! Nope, not "It is what it is"—that is just too passive for an entrepreneur, someone trying to move his life forward with all the rest of the Dream Believers! At no time in our civilization have there been as many incredible tools, technologies, and problems to solve as now in my lifetime. Solving problems: if you look at "problems" as being sad, then just consider that most problems in the world can be solved once incredible, creative, and can-do minds tackle the issues.

I could name many examples: curing polio, human flight to the moon, invention of the telephone—must I go on? "You got the power" is a call to entrepreneurs, creative types, people looking for work, and other folks, to remind them that at no point in our history have we had such a wealth of tools, information, and promise to make things happen!

I told a buddy that I couldn't solve a particular problem, and he responded: "Crowd-source it." I said, "What?" Yeah, I knew what the term meant; however my little idea, could be "crowd-sourced?" I went on a few popular discussion sites, and I sent out a "wave"—yes I use Google Wave, it is free and fun! Oh, a friend of mine wanted to introduce me to her friend, who's a successful entrepreneur. I told her, "Send me a wave." She laughed! Yes, Google Wave does the job of facilitating collaborative discussion of ideas. Getting 50 emails on the same topic just isn't as smooth!

Back to "crowd-sourcing" to put your idea out there. I wanted to find a keyword for a new product I wanted to start, and I wanted to see what other minds would say. So, in between sending out a "wave" to about 14 people, then posting the issues on a few sites, my call was answered!

Okay, here are some reasons why "You got the power!" Take, for example, YouTube.com. Do you realize that most companies with a product today have online support, training, and independently sponsored YouTube pages built around a particular technology! Training to become a more proficient entrepreneur is plentiful! Bring on the problems: I had a friend who wanted to learn all about video for her upcoming book and presentations on how to help women achieve. I told her to try "East Bay Localpreneurs Meetup." Then I told her to search on "help" and "info" for that subject. There have to be a ton of Meetup groups devoted to that one topic nowadays!

You need talent. You need help to run your business, I know. Just more excuses, ha! Elance.com has given me some of my best contractors to date. Just a few months ago I found myself using freelancers to manage my database, run my AWeber accounts, and manage my blog presences on the net. The only thing I started out wanting to do was train one of those freelancers to run my Posterous account more. Do you get my point? Power is not a bad thing at all. It is all about how you see the battlefield of the mind.

I am constantly telling my mortgage broker partner, "You need to get a land-line phone. Better yet, get RingCentral, dude." He laughs me off, however, are you truly able to take all of your sales calls via your often "dropped call" cell phone? I doubt it. Sounds good, you save a few nuggets, however a customer calling about a problem deserves your utmost attention. I agree, so I use RingCentral, because being a small business owner, it manages my communications with the public and my clients. When someone calls, they do not necessarily need to hear about Sprint's many assorted menus. They want to know how their problem can be solved!

Posterous.com offers you the ability, whether you are a realtor, small business owner, social media pro, entrepreneur, or whatever you might be, to take control of posting in one centralized place as opposed to spending nights and weekends fumbling around with posting in all the different social communities. Make your life simple, and "Get the power!" Oh, did I mention "Instant Scheduling?" Try Tungle.me to schedule faster and quicker, no matter what your clients or future prospects are using, and it is all instant!

This article is not meant to be ingenious. This article is about making common sense of the commonsense ways to continue to use technology empower our businesses. Business is simple. As people, we strip ourselves of the power by continuing to Guru follow until all the tools to put the bike together have been left on the table. You only need to use some small tools to help empower your organization, your business, and your life today!

"You got the power!"

This is part 1 of a series on ways to use innovation to empower your organization or yourself! We are just getting started. Tune in later for more!



About writer:

Jonathan Fleming is President and CEO of Jonathan Fleming & Associates, an innovative real estate sales and marketing company in the San Francisco Bay Area, he believes real estate has changed dramatically, he uses social media and next generation technology to run his real estate business, he writes, lectures and blogs about it daily!