Super U Podcast | Socialnomics
In today’s episode, Erik Qualman joins host, Grace Lanni on the All About That Brand Podcast. Erik’s shares his thoughts on the future of social media, digital shadows (what people are saying about you online) and the story behind his green glasses.
5x #1 Bestselling Author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman has performed in over 55 countries and reached over 50 million people this past decade. He was voted the 2nd Most Likable Author in the World behind Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling.
Need a sneak peek? Below are the main takeaways from the episode.
Super U Podcast | Socialnomics:
[14:56] On Human Nature & Social Media
“We’re social animals by nature. People always ask me what’s gonna win. I go look, if I can predict that, then I’d have arrived here on my own helicopter, to get “there” on my own jet plane. What we can do is understand trends. But we don’t predict the actual tool, no one can predict which tool is going to succeed. But it’s really about understanding that trend. And as social animals, if you look at TikTok, there’s really nothing new about it. It’s just basically the next version of Instagram, all these tools kind of adjust, occasionally [we see] something that’s radically different. Obviously, when social media first launched that was radically different, or a tool like Twitter when it first launches that’s radically different. [What it] is that you need to understand, okay, this is more of an evolution, some of these products, and I get excited when there’s actually a really disruptive piece like TikTok. It’s not just that that’s the next flavor that people are going to, but I’m always on the edge to look out. Okay, here’s the breakthrough on voice. We’ve been waiting for the breakthrough tool, a social tool that utilizes only voice. And so all of a sudden, we see that one pops up, okay, that’s not an evolution, that’s a disruptive piece.”
[17:22] On Starting A Podcast
“What I want is I workout at the gym in the morning. And so I was listening to podcasts. And when I was running out of content, there’s tons of podcast, great podcasts out there, I found myself searching for tips from a Jeff Bezos, from a Warren Buffett, people like that, and Brene Brown, whoever it might be, and I go, you know, what would be really helpful is actually to actually curate and kind of put the best of the best of the tips together, because we’ll at least have a listening audience of one, because I knew that I would listen to it. So I said, let’s put this together, because at least I’m gonna get value out of it. And then what we were really happily surprised by is a lot of people found value. So the downloads increased and so now we’re testing a lot of different formats. So it’s been a wonderful ride, it’s the Super U podcast, the whole podcast. The reason we want to do it, it’s designed to unlock and unleash your inner superpower. So the beautiful thing is, we have fun doing it. So even if we didn’t have a lot of listeners, which we are fortunate that we do, we’d still do it, because I just really enjoy it. I really love the call-ins as well.”
[26:51] Socialnomics
“The biggest challenge for me right now is actually… I wrote a book called Socialnomics because I’ve been in the digital space for 27 years. And at the time, I was the head of marketing at Travelzoo. We took that company public, we started to utilize my space at the time, we spent, I think, $25 million a year on Google search. But when we looked at it, I started going, “Wait, this social thing is going to be huge for business.” And I remember some people on my team, the CEO go, “What are you talking about? This is like for teenagers, and our demographic is 40 to 55-year-old females,” and I’m looking at them going, “No, this is going to be massive.” And so long story longer is I just got tired and out of frustration, I wrote the book Socialnomics. Fast forward a decade later, here I am, I actually struggle because we use social tools, but not as much as you think. And the book that I’m writing right now… it’s almost an anti-venom to Socialnomics. In some respects, I say it’s similar to a doctor prescribes you something for your illness, and then realizes, wait, that has some negative consequences. So let’s go back in and solve for that. And so what I’m telling people is, I’m so excited that everyone’s on these social tools, but we kind of went too deep on them. That’s a social tool, just your phone in general, just digital itself is it’s the balance. And so that’s why you’ll hear me and you heard me with the CEOs, it’s a constant balance. And so for us, we wrestle with it as well, is that we make sure that we’re putting the right amount of time into these tools, but not too much time. [You have] to make sure that we’re focused on the most important thing, and you can’t replace face to face. And it’s always back to that balance. It’s Flintstones, and Jetsons, Jetsons, and Flintstones coming together in this Jetsons era.”
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About the All About That Brand Podcast:
Podcast Channel: Apple Podcasts
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The Super U Podcast is hosted by #1 bestselling author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman.
