#we are ADDING TO the collective knowledge and MAYBE we will reach a consensus when enough evidence stacked on one side | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

genshin-garbage · 4 years ago

Text

Regret and the Truth

Lumine falls for the distant alchemist, Albedo, but he doesn’t realize his feelings until it’s too late. He hurts her in a way he can’t undo and regret settles in his heart. Regret can be ignored for a while, but it always comes back.

When Lumine first saw the alchemist, her first thought was that he was really pretty. When they officially met, she found the rumors about his coldness to be unfounded. He was quite pleasant to work with and engaged in conversation avidly. Albedo wasn’t shy about asking questions about her nature as a traveler of worlds, and was curious about her biology. She initially chalked this up to being about his research, but as the questions became more and more personal, she couldn’t help but be curious about him in turn.

Over time, their talks started to resemble normal conversations people have to get to know each other. Questions like: what are your hobbies and what’s your hometown like. Lumine eventually forgot how insatiable his curiosity really is and came to consider him a close friend, later even developing feelings for him. She went to visit his camp on Dragonspine whenever she was free, and when she had to stop by the Knights of Favonius headquarters she always asked if he was there.

It didn’t take long for most of the knights to realize Lumine’s crush, Klee especially was excited as she wanted to see the honorary knight be happy with her big brother. Aside from Klee, the knights generally supported her. A few who were closer to Albedo however, were a bit hesitant and tried to steer her away from him. Sucrose and Timaus in particular tried to tell Lumine about his one-track mind, and how he has a hard time understanding normal emotions. However, Lumine’s feelings couldn’t be stopped and those who were reluctant do eventually stop trying to sway her.

There came a day when Lumine had finally worked up the courage to confess her feelings with the support of her friends (and maybe a little bit of alcohol). It was sunset and Albedo had been collecting research materials in Dragonspine, she was a bit tipsy and waiting for him in his lab.

“Hm? Lumine? What are you doing here?”

“Albedo I, I need to tell you something.”

“Yes?”

Lumine approaches him, she was too nervous to look him in the eyes. “I, I like you a lot!”

“Hmm, I see. Then I wonder…” He leans over and kisses her. Lumine doesn’t kiss back out of surprise but quickly leans into the kiss. Their hands roam each other's bodies as they kiss, feet taking them to the couch nearby. As Albedo lays her down on the sofa, he kisses her down her neck and leads the night in a more passionate direction.

Lumine wakes up naked next to Albedo. Her head stung a little but she remembers clearly what had transpired. She blushes hard, she felt there was a possibility of Albedo returning her affections but she didn’t expect the night to turn in that direction. It felt good though and she doesn’t regret it. He never properly said he liked her back however, which irked her a bit, but there was still time. She feels Albedo stir below her, one hand moving from her waist to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes.

“Mhmmm, good morning.” He sits up carefully so as to not push her off the couch.

“Good- good morning.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I feel great. A bit sore but I really enjoyed last night.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary? No changes anywhere?”

“No?” She hesitated, dread washing over her. “Last night, you never really told me how you felt.”

“About that, I don’t want you to misinterpret my actions. I was merely curious about your biology and how your kind reacts to romantic interest, nothing more. Perhaps if the results were different we could have continued this charade a bit longer, but they turned out to be the same as any average person in Teyvat.” He reaches over to grab his shirt from the floor. “Please excuse me, I have work to do and I must record the data from this experiment.”

Lumine shifted off him but remained silent, tears began to well up in her eyes as she felt her heart be torn to shreds by every word that came out of his mouth. To him she was nothing more than an experiment, a specimen in his research to find the truth to this world. She was had, used, and now was being discarded as if she was nothing. “So last night, my confession, it all meant nothing to you? All those times you called me beautiful, was it all a lie?”

“No, not entirely. You are attractive and your company is pleasant enough.” He puts on his clothing as he speaks, his tone disinterested and his face neutral. It was clear he didn’t care what happened next or how Lumine felt. “However, beyond my research I don’t feel the need to be anymore than acquaintances. It was simply convenient to use your attraction to get a better idea of how you work.”

“I see.” Her voice cracked and Albedo turned to look at her. Tears fell down her cheeks and a fake smile plastered on her face as she put on her clothing. “I’m- I’m glad that I was at least some use to you. I, uh, I need to go. Paimon must be wondering where I am. Goodbye.”

She rushes out the door leaving a surprised Albedo alone in the lab. While he did expect her to be upset, he didn’t expect her to still treat him with such kindness. He expected her to beat him screaming at him for playing with her emotions. He felt a tinge of regret before smothering it, there wasn’t time for regret in the pursuit of knowledge. It was a necessary step in getting the data he needed. Still, the hurt expression lingered in his mind as he planned out his new routine until the people of Mondtstadt forgot about this incident.

The next few weeks, Lumine was emotionally absent. It was hard not to notice how she robotically went through commissions, taking more of them as well as bounties. Paimon noticed that what little sleep she did get on a daily basis was cut from her schedule, and that she had started eating less. Whenever anyone asked what was wrong, she would always say that she was fine. They knew it had something to do with Albedo, but he was more elusive than usual. He was the last to come and first to leave during meetings, all of his experiments now took place in Dragonspine, and his time spent babysitting Klee was now spent studying the area around Star Snatched Cliff.

One night, they had finally had enough and managed to convince Diluc to let Lumine drink in hopes that some alcohol in her system would finally get her to tell them what was wrong. He agreed, and so Lisa, Jean, and Amber took Lumine out on a girls night out while Diluc manned the bar.

Lisa was the first to prod after Lumine was decently drunk. “So Lumine, What happened between you and Albedo? You haven’t asked about him in a long while. Did your confession not go well?”

“He- he doesn’t like me in that way. I’m nothing but a specimen in his research.” Lumine takes another long sip of her drink. “He said it himself, ‘beyond my research I don’t feel the need to become anything beyond acquaintances’.”

“I have a feeling that if he had simply rejected you, you wouldn’t be this upset.” Jean stated. “Something else happened between you two. You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to, but as your friends we want to help you in any way we can.”

“Yeah! Like Jean said! We all hate seeing you all mopey and sad! If Albedo did anything to you I’ll make it my personal mission to set Barron Bunny on him!” Amber added, crossing her arms to exaggerate her point.

Lumine, touched by their words, and incredibly hammered at this point, began to cry. “Tha-thank you guys. I- after I confessed we spent the night together, it was consensual and I enjoyed it, but the morning after he admitted that he only slept with me as part of his research. I- I really thought he liked me back, but he used me! I feel like there’s something wrong with me! I feel so dumb for falling for him, Sucrose and Timaus even warned me! Am I just not good enough? I thought I had a chance, but I was so foolish for thinking I was good enough. Why would he fall for someone like me? I’m nothing but an outlander!”

The rest of her words become unintelligible babble and wails. Amber held her in a tight hug as she bawled her eyes out. Looks were shared between the three women and Diluc as a roaring rage began to burn in their eyes. How dare he use Lumine like this. How dare he play with her feelings, then cast her aside like a toy. Any sort of respect they had for the alchemist beyond his genius had dissipated in the wind.

It wasn’t long before everyone in Mondstadt knew what had happened. He found the increased difficulty in obtaining items in shops and finding people to assist him irritating but not unexpected. He didn’t care about the glares from adults, but the questions from Klee did sting.

“What did big brother do to big sis Lumine to hurt her feelings? Klee can go get Jean and see if she can help big brother make up with Lumine!”

“It’s ok Klee, I’m sure Jean and Lumine have better things to do.”

“But-”

“Klee, it's fine. How about you go play outside.”

“Ok…”

As Klee exited the lab, Sucrose came in. She had an anxious look and was fidgeting. “Master Albedo? Do you have a moment? I wish to speak to you about something.”

“Very well, what is it Sucrose?”

“Why- why did you do that to Lumine? There were other ways to get the data you wanted without hurting her. So why did you do it?”

“It was simply the most convenient way at the time, and the data I collected was easier to analyze since I didn’t have to rely on a third party. It was simply easier to get objective information.”

Sucrose clearly didn’t like that answer as her body tensed up and her face had a hurt expression. “I see. I’ll leave you be then. I won’t be available to assist you for a while. I hope your research was worth Lumine’s pain.”

She stormed off in a quiet rage and left Albedo alone in the lab. He seemed to be alone more, he attributed it to the lack of hands helping him but he knew deep down it was because Lumine wasn’t there anymore. For the second time, regret flared up in his heart before he smothers it again. If loneliness was a consequence of getting closer to the truth, then he shall make himself the loneliest man alive.

The month after the confrontation with Sucrose, he overhears that the traveler had returned from Liyue with someone. He pays this no mind until he sees her with the man himself. An ugly feeling rears its head as he sees her laughing and smiling with a green haired man. If Albedo hadn’t been so observant he would have thought the man to be annoyed by her presence, but he notices how soft his eyes look at her and how he stands in a position ready to protect her if anything were to suddenly happen. When the man pulls a fallen leaf out of her hair, the ugly feeling grips harder.

Before he can stop, he realizes that he’s walking towards them. It’s too late to turn around as they notice him. “Welcome back, Lumine. May I ask who this is?”

Lumine shifts uncomfortably in place, she turns to hide herself a little. “Oh, uh, hello. This is Xiao, Xiao this is Albedo.”

“Is he the one you’ve spoken about in the past?” Xiao’s expression has lost its softness as he looks at Albedo.

Lumine hesitates to answer the question, nervous of his reaction. “Yes… yes he is.” She grabs his arm when she sees him tense up. “Please don’t do anything, it’s in the past. I just want to forget it happened.”

“Hmph, fine.”

“I shall take my leave. Enjoy your stay in Mondstadt and a pleasure to meet you Xiao.”

“I cannot say likewise.” He growls.

As Albedo walks away, he sees in the reflection of a store window that Lumine had kissed Xiao on the cheek. Flustered Xiao turns away, but not without holding her hand in return.

“That could have been me.” The thought stakes its claim in his mind. As much as he tries and tries, he can’t smother the feeling of regret in his heart. He loves Lumine, but he hurt her, and now he can never have her. When he turned into his lab, he sunk down onto his knees and truly let the feeling sink in. He was a genius but clearly he still had much to learn, he just wished he had realized sooner what his teacher truly meant when she told him to learn the truth to this world.

He closed his eyes and hoped that if he were to ever be reborn he wouldn’t make the same mistake again, then let the darkness consume him.

#genshin impact albedo #genshin albedo #gi albedo #genshin impact lumine #genshin lumine #gi lumine #genshin impact xiao #genshin xiao #gi xiao #albelumi #albedo x lumine #lumine x albedo #xiaolumi #lumine x xiao #xiao x lumine #genshin impact #genshin #gi

124 notes · View notes

revlyncox · 4 years ago

Text

Water & Wheels

This Platform Address was offered to the Washington Ethical Society by Interim Leader Lyn Cox on September 13, 2020.

About twenty years ago, I made a trip to Hungary and Romania to attend a conference of the International Association for Religious Freedom (that year in Budapest) and to visit Unitarian congregations that had been surviving despite the best efforts of state repression for almost 500 years. Unitarians in the part of the world that used to be called Transylvania now mainly find themselves, thanks to political border maneuvering, as ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities in Romania. For five hundred years, empires rose and fell, and the Unitarians of Transylvania persisted. To be sure, their practice is quite different from Unitarian Universalists in the United States, and from Ethical Culture societies. At the same time, I can’t help but admire their perseverance, their commitment to continuing to search for the truth, their intellectual rigor in periods of history when asking questions was dangerous, and their creativity with keeping their folk arts alive whether or not it was legal. We may need to draw from the wisdom from allies such as these in times to come.

In one of the villages I visited, I saw the inside of their grain mill. It was still in operation the same way it had been for generations. The water flowed down the river, turned the water wheel, which turned wheels and gears, which moved the runner stone above the stationary bedstone, with just a fraction of an inch between them to leave space for the grain. I say the mill had been in operation for generations, but of course things don’t remain the same. A millstone needs to be re-dressed every so often, to have its grooves renewed by an expert. Occasionally, a millstone needs replacing. So there are larger cycles of renewal enveloping annual cycles of grain enveloping daily routines enveloping the turn of the wheels necessary for the bread of life. There are cycles, and yet not every cycle is exactly the same.

Rivers are not the only thing that can turn a mill, of course. Ocean tides can power a mill, and so can currents of wind. You don’t turn a mill with one drop of water or one molecule of air. The power comes from something that moves freely, something that may seem insignificant as a single particle, but produces a lot of physical force when enough of those particles are moving in the same direction.

There are two things resonating for me right now in this metaphor. One is that many aspects of our lives run in cycles, though some things may be more like spirals than closed circles in the way change is introduced with each trip around the bend. Mark Twain is quoted as saying that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. Nevertheless, opportunities or themes or perspectives might come around with a bit of predictability. Sometimes another trip around the spiral gives us a chance to try again, to make a correction, to begin anew.

The other thing that resonates with me in this metaphor is that we can build power with focus and unity. Bringing in the harvest, turning the wheels, caring for loved ones in a difficult time, struggling for justice -- all of these things are best approached in community. In our story this morning, Higgins may have provided encouragement, but the renewal of the land required the collective action of drops near and far. At a critical point, the drops did not wait for a perfect bucket or for certainty of success or for universal consensus of all water droplets, but joined together in a common goal.

September is a good time to consider seasons and cycles. The Fall Equinox might get some people thinking about balance in their lives. For those with a connection to the Jewish calendar, the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah (coming next weekend) and Yom Kippur invite introspection and commitment to self-improvement. Students of all ages and the people who love them know September as its own kind of new year, with new classes to take or teach, new goals, and (if we’re lucky) new school supplies. Stay tuned for information about how to contribute to our school supply drive for Friends and Family of Incarcerated People. Here at WES, September brings Opening Sunday, a renewal of attention to community life, and a new program year flowing from one event to the next.

Some things are the same this year, and some things are different. We are experiencing a new season, though not like any we have known before. We may have some of the same impulses to renewed commitment, new ideas, and renewal through contemplation. This time around the spiral, we are navigating big forces like the pandemic, climate change, community trauma that threatens Black lives, opportunities for systemic change in racial justice, increased economic pressures, and perhaps some hope and trepidation about politics. Our challenge is to respond to the moment, drawing the wisdom that we can from the familiarity of this part of the cycle, while still being open to new inspiration.

One of the strengths of being in a community like WES is being able to draw from the wisdom of people at many different points in the cycle of life. There are times in our lives when we are at rest, part of a pool of deep and still water. There are times in our lives when we rush inexorably forward, surrounded by other droplets doing the same, to the point where it might seem that this rushing is all there is to being water. There are times when we are drawn upward, vapor rising and finding perspective in the big picture. There are times when we are held in suspension, clouds in wait. There are times when we are called back toward the earth, remembering a direction, ready to wear down stones once more. The quote from Felix Adler I shared earlier alludes to an ever-expanding journey of consciousness. Eventually, we all reach the sea.

If a river had a consciousness like the human consciousness, we might imagine that it hears the murmur of the distant sea from the very moment when it leaves its source, and that the murmur grows clearer and clearer as the river flows on its way, welcoming every tributary it receives as adding to the volume which it will contribute to the sea, rejoicing at every turn and bend in its long course that brings it nearer to its goal. Such is the consciousness of a spiritually-minded human being. -Felix Adler

So it is in a multigenerational community. The insight of children, the urgent observations of adolescents, the generative drive of adults, the wisdom of seniors, the legacy building of elders are all necessary to complete our circle. Being together helps us understand a more complete picture of how to draw out the best in others and therefore in ourselves. Each part of the cycle of life has its gifts. Though we cannot be together in the same way for the time being, I am hoping that we can get creative about strengthening ties in our multigenerational community. We could consider exchanging letters or cards. We could have guest readers in Platform from different age groups. If you would like to start a mixed-age book group, perhaps there are fans of Lois Lowry, Nnedi Okorafor, or the Rick Riordan Presents series just waiting to talk to you. It will take effort and a willingness to try new things. I hope you will help this multigenerational community stay connected.

Understanding time in terms of seasons and cycles also gives us chances to try again. A different phase of life might bring a new career, or permission to let go of one that no longer fits. This turn around the spiral might bring an opportunity for taking responsibility or growing toward reconciliation. Maybe a new year also brings self-knowledge about purpose or identity or the values to which we commit ourselves. For some, disaster or trauma or state interference have disrupted the cycle, and a new season might mean a chance to rebuild. As people who are committed to the worth of every person, a community of people who recognize human beings as ends in themselves, the open spaces in the spiral are vital. There must be room for second chances, for discovery, for new perspectives. Repeating patterns make it possible for people to enter, leave, or switch positions in the dance gracefully.

This understanding of a repeating pattern, a way for each person to find a unique place and yet be part of a larger whole, brings me to the second point that I made earlier. When we can bring together focus and unity, we can build power to accomplish great things. There’s an old labor song, lyrics from the constitution of the American Miners Association, and music adapted from an Irish tune by Waldemar Hille and Pete Seeger.

Step by step the longest march Can be won, can be won Many stones can form an arch, Singly none, singly none And by union, what we will Can be accomplished still; Drops of water turn a mill, Singly none, singly none.

Using our leverage for justice requires us to work together. That means following the lead of people who are most impacted, and for some of us with privilege that means downshifting our perception of ourselves as experts. It means staying focused on the goals, and not getting sidetracked by minor disagreements or wordsmithing. Flowing together toward a common goal means staying the course when it becomes inconvenient.

I attended my first Washington Interfaith Network meeting this week. Washington Interfaith Network or WIN is a broad-based, multi-racial, multi-faith, strictly non-partisan, District-wide citizens’ power organization, rooted in local congregations and associations. WES has been a member of WIN for several years. Together, WES and the other member organizations of WIN are working on affordable housing, community safety, immigrant rights, and other issues that I know are near and dear to the hearts of WES members. As just one member, we don’t single-handedly decide on strategy or action or timing. We participate, and we show up when we’re asked by our neighbors who need us to sustain the power building that is necessary to get things done. WIN is planning some actions coming up related to utility justice, ensuring people have access to electricity and other basic necessities. I’ll keep you posted. I hope that sustaining WES’s relationship with WIN is something we can do together during this interim time. One drop alone cannot fill the bucket or turn the mill. Great things ask us to work as a collective.

Sticking together goes for other efforts, too. Community care is getting more difficult as the pandemic drags on. When we thought we might have to limit our in-person activities for just a few weeks, alter our routines for just a season, change the way we work for a short temporary period, it was overwhelming, but many of us had a sense of unity. Now we are entering a time when it seems like different governments, institutions, and subcultures are holding on to entirely different sets of facts. And we miss each other. And some of us can’t be as careful as we would like, because we have to put food on the table, or go to medical appointments, or find accommodations for learning differences, or find some sense of balance so that our families can go on functioning. We are tired of Zoom. We are tired of not hugging. And I think we prefer this to being responsible for someone’s death. I am asking that we maintain an ethic of community care, even when it is hard.

The staff is nearing completion on a set of guidelines for socially distanced, small group, outdoor events. If cases continue to decline -- which they might not in the near term, as regular flu season comes into play and people move moderately risky gatherings indoors -- but if cases continue to decline, we’ll start working on guidelines for socially distanced, small group activities in the main hall. After that, we are preparing for the day, I hope as soon as June, when we can have hybrid Platforms in the Main Hall. Hybrid platforms would have about 30 people at a time in the room and an inclusive, active experience for people participating from home. Meanwhile, please wear your masks, wash your hands, and stay the course so that as many of us as possible can get to the other side of the pandemic. Our collective commitment matters.

Many important things happen in circles and spirals. The energy for those great movements is collective energy. The cycles of life, the cycle of the seasons, the spirals of history, the opportunity to begin again as people and as a community are all curved in their own way. Let’s use that curvature to learn new things as well as draw wisdom from the past. Let’s use that curvature to leave people and communities the space to be who they are now rather than frozen in time. Let’s use that curvature to gather people and power in our collective commitment to build better communities and a better world. The spiral continues. So be it.

0 notes

nicholerestrada · 6 years ago

Text

7 Bold Predictions About The Future Of Media And The World At Large

http://bit.ly/2OGkQXf

7 Bold Predictions About The Future Of Media — And The World At Large

James Cole Updated October 23, 2018

My name is James Cole, and I started a company called The Hub. The Hub connects 35,000 photographers, models, and videographers to brands across the world. Brands work with our creators to create content at scale, and our creators help spread the word about their products from their social platforms.

The Hub is young, and I am a first-time founder. That said, my position on the front lines of the media landscape has afforded me access to people, information, and insights that employees my age within the machine don’t get to see.

This post, therefore, is a snapshot of my raw, unfiltered thinking, in the form of seven predictions about the next seven years. It’s as much a chance for me to share with a wider audience what I’ve learned so far as it is for fun and posterity.

1. The “freelancer economy” will become half the US workforce

Today, 55 million Americans work as freelancers or moonlighters. That’s over 35% of the workforce. Last year, they collectively earned over $1.4 trillion, according to Edelman. What’s more, the freelancer subset is growing three times faster than the overall U.S workforce. At this rate, freelancers will be the majority subset by 2027.

Unsurprisingly, with over 47% of them working freelance, Millennials are leading this trend.

Why is this happening?

First, the Amazon economy is generating millions of freelancers jobs. Across every asset class, technology is elegantly directing vast clouds of freelancers to pair consumer demand with corporate supply. Today, thanks to services like Uber, Postmates, Capsule, and Airbnb, consumers can get exactly what they want faster than ever.

These services place freelancers within a large technological web, empowering them to work for ‘themselves,’ on their own schedules. Thanks to the efficiency of the technology, a worker’s output keeps pace with her input. Time in equals value, which equals money out. That equation feels good for everyone. It puts numbers on the board, too: Uber employs nearly one million people in the United States, and in 2016, Airbnb hosts in the US made over $800 million across 91,000 listings.

Even outside freelancer-driven services, though, the freelance model is spreading to the rest of the workforce.

Previously, hiring meant sifting through hundreds of resumes, using proxies like college degrees and SAT scores to gauge a candidate’s competency. This process is inefficient and clunky, like calling a limo/cab service to arrange a pickup. But just as passengers now use Uber to seamlessly find rides, more conventional corporate employers can use services like Upwork, WorkingNotWorking, and The Hub to find talented freelancers with very specific skillsets in seconds.

The barrier to filling your company’s blindspots with the perfect freelancer has never been lower. Community reviews for freelancers, along with search filters like cost, availability, and relevant experience, help corporations to find a perfect match effortlessly. Aptitude tests have been integrated and streamlined into that process, too. Upwork, for example, offers thousands of tests, ranging from specific coding languages, to Social Media Marketing, to Excel, letting employers filter freelancers by what percentile they scored in among everyone who took the respective test.

More broadly, the culture is shifting, too. Coworking spaces are booming. In 2017, We Work accounted for 3.3% of new leases signed in Manhattan. In 2018 they accounted for 9.7%. In fact, just a few weeks ago WeWork became the biggest private office tenant in NYC. With demand continuing to grow, and infrastructure and technology keeping pace to support the supply, I don’t see this trend slackening off any time soon.

2. Most colleges will consolidate or die

I know, crazy right? But listen:

There are too many colleges. They’re only getting more expensive. We’re too in debt to afford them. And there are now much better markers of a qualified job applicant than a diploma.

After WWII, population growth and cultural demand fueled growth for two- and four-year colleges. Since then, the number of higher education institutions has steadily climbed, ballooning 30% in the past 30 years alone. The number of enrollees has grown by 57% over the same time period, jumping from 11.3 million to 17.7 million, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Over the last five years, though, both the number of applicants the number of colleges has decreased – with the pace quickening year-over-year.

Why? I’ll say it again: college is too expensive and we can’t afford it.

Over the last 30 years, the cost of American college has increased 4x, while the median household income has barely budged, from ~$54,000 in 1988 to ~$61,000 today. That delta has led to debt. In fact, the U.S student loan debt just recently eclipsed $1.5 trillion for the first time in history. It’s now the second biggest debt category, behind mortgage debt. More than 44 million U.S citizens still owe money to their alma mater (more than $5,000 each).

On top of that, for perhaps the first time in history, a conventional college education leaves graduates ill-equipped for the job market they’re entering. McKinsey asserts that as much as 30% of the global workforce could be replaced by automation by 2030. Already, the 14 million jobs that are outsourced overseas far outstrip the 7.5 million unemployed Americans.

On the other hand, paying a hefty premium to attend lectures and live in student housing makes less and less sense in the face of more sophisticated and scalable digital options. “Charging people lots of money to provide them with skills they could learn from an Internet video…is not going to be a viable long-term financial model,” says Richard Miller, President of Olin College of Engineering. “Knowledge is now a commodity. It’s really inexpensive and easy to get. Who’s gonna pay you for that?”

Experimental education is getting more sophisticated, more customized, and more affordable. With resources like Coursera, Udemy, General Assembly and others, getting surgical, specialized knowledge to pursue a specific career or freelance opportunity is now readily available for pennies on the dollar.

The concept of a college campus won’t die, but it will have to evolve. College will be less about attending lectures or picking a major – in fact, 93% of employers care more about “critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills than an undergrad’s concentration – and instead will become about interdisciplinary learning and cultural camaraderie.

Because of technology, our world is changing exponentially faster than it ever has before. To me, taking on massive debt to get a generalized degree in the face of a moving-target job market makes almost no sense.

3. The custom internet will divide us, and then unify us

I don’t think people realize just how much the custom internet is dividing us.

The algorithms that power our lives – that deliver us food, find us Ubers, and serve up relevant news articles – are so highly honed on who we are and what we like, they actually bend the digital world around us to conform to our tastes.

The more content we consume, the more ad revenue the platforms can make off our eyeballs. Netflix, Facebook, Spotify have every incentive to hold your attention as long as they can, and they do it by giving you what you want to read, view, or listen to.

The result? What I consume is so different than what you consume that there is no ‘normal.’ There is no single consensus ‘reality.’ Mine is different than yours. Yours is different than Trump’s. Trump’s is different than your Uber driver’s. Everyone you engage with – digitally, in person, or on a macro, national level – is living their life filtered through different digital experiences and truths. Different facts, even.

Our tastes aren’t the only thing driving that process, either. By understanding what makes us tick, Facebook can sell highly targeted ad space to brands that want to reach us. When brands (or, say, Russians) hit us with highly targeted ads, we’re sitting ducks. They know just what to say and how to say it to get us to like, read, follow, or purchase. And what’s worse, the more we like, read, follow, or purchase, the more we cement our own preferences. The more we consume, the more we lock in who we are, which makes us easier to target, which makes us consume more.

It’s a death spiral. And no, I’m not being dramatic. Thankfully, though, I see a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

Reality has always been subjective. Your experience is and yours alone, undefinable and unsharable. But now, for the first time ever, our worldviews are becoming tangible, concrete, and externalized. The algorithms that know you better than you know yourself can also paint a picture of the inside of your head for someone else. Our personal internets don’t need to isolate us if we can let others step inside them.

Imagine a world in which I could share a ‘password’ to my ‘digital algorithm,’ letting you view the internet (read: the world) as I do. You’d be exposed to the articles I like, the music I listen to, the ads I see. You could experience exactly what I experience, or at least the things that shape my experience. In a world where you could walk a mile in someone’s virtual shoes, maybe we’d all have access to a much-needed dose of empathy.

4. The media-middle-man will die, the future is OTT

Historically, TV shows, radio programs, and articles made their way out into the world by way of powerful gatekeeping middlemen. Broadcast networks like CBS and NBC, radio stations, and publications like Vogue chose what we consumed, when we consumed it, and where we could find it.

Today, though, publishers can go “over-the-top” (OTT) and bypass the middlemen of old. This detour takes many forms – most notably in the wave of “modern TV networks” like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, as well as the rise of democratized publishing via social networks like Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook.

As this is happening, though, Americans are very close to ‘peak media consumption.’ Depressingly, the average American spends over 12 hours per day on media and tech consumption, a number that has unsurprisingly skyrocketed over the past decade. However, according to Activate, over the next four years, our tech consumption will only grow by another .

The result? Publishers will fight tooth and nail for those 18 minutes. As the bottleneck narrows, publishers will starve and/or consolidate. When the dust clears, my money is on modern TV networks and social media platforms outliving nearly every incumbent network and publisher.

Already, modern TV networks are growing hand over fist. Nearly all of the aforementioned entities have grown 300-400% in the past three years alone. Moreover, compared the cost of cable television, modern networks cost less than 1/4th the price (per consumer, per hour of viewing), leaving modern networks with more to spend on content. Better content means more viewers. The gap is widening, and it’s widening fast.

Already, the traditional middlemen are losing their access points to new audiences. Many young people don’t actually own a TV, with Gen-Z watching 40% less TV than they did five years ago.

Social media consumption is rocketing, too. Facebook video views have doubled, from 9 billion in 2015 to 19 billion in 2017, Youtube video views have doubled over the same period, from 9 billion to 19 billion. Even Snapchat, with all its stumbles, has doubled its video viewpoint over the same timeframe, from 7 billion to 15 billion.

Unsurprisingly, as the consumer eyeballs double, so does ad revenue. In 2014, Youtube’s ad revenue overtook CBS’s, the largest of the broadcast networks. Since then, it hasn’t even been close.

For consumers, cutting out middlemen means less cost, less delay, and above all, transparency. On social media, the people are the publishers, and they make or break the content. View counts, upvotes, and algorithms choose what lives and what dies – not a monolithic boardroom of crusty misogynists.

The last leverage traditional networks still hold is monocultural events like the Super Bowl and the Oscars. But when one of those airs on Amazon or Hulu instead of Fox or ABC, it’s over. Mark my words, it will happen before 2020.

5. Traditional media will account for

The shift from traditional media to OTT outlets is going to have serious ramifications for how brands allocate their ad dollars, too. I see the spending pendulum swinging hard towards new media, but I also see it swinging back towards traditional outlets after that.

Already, in the advertising sphere, traditional media like TV, print, and radio are starting to circle the drain. Digital media, and social in particular, are becoming more and more focal to marketing strategies, with digital ad spend accounting for 44% of total media spend in 2016, some $90 billion. TV spend, meanwhile, only accounted for 34% of total media spend that year, about $70 billion.

The biggest beneficiaries of this trend have been the major social networks. In 2017, more than 60% of the US digital media budget — over $50 billion — went to Google and Facebook.

And that trend is intensifying. Overall marketing budgets are surging by 18% year-over-year, and we’re on track to have spent a whopping $107 billion on digital ads in 2018.

For traditional media, that’s another nail in the coffin, at least in the short term. Media consumption is steadily shifting away from traditional outlets, and ad dollars will likely follow suit. Print, in particular, is showing its age, accounting for 16.6% of national ad spend but only 3.3% of daily media consumption. That disparity won’t last long, and it’s unlikely that consumers will suddenly get an overwhelming hankering for physical newspapers. As marketing budgets continue to shift, expect to see even bigger drops in traditional media spending.

All that said, I absolutely don’t see traditional media spend ever dropping to zero. In fact, while this number has been down over the past five years, the average American still watches 8 eight hours of TV per day. Traditional media consumption is dropping, but it seems more like it’s reaching a lowered settling point than going away entirely.

In the next few years, we’ll likely see traditional media spend dip below 25% of total spend as the bottom seems to fall out. However, I see that as marketers over-correcting. Once they realize those eyeballs have actually become undervalued, they’ll readjust, and the numbers will stabilize. We’ve already seen this happen with radio ad spend, which (believe it or not) was up 128% year-over-year last year. So while the media landscape’s rumbling as its tectonic plates shift, it’s not the end of the old world just yet.

6. Most traditional ad agencies will die

Where the ground really is crumbling, though, is under the feet of traditional ad agencies.

The fact is, agencies are fatally under-equipped to adapt to the digital media landscape. First and foremost, they’ve historically made their money off traditional media. And, as I detailed earlier, they’re going down with that ship.

Worse for them, there are now way too many agencies, and they’re stuck fighting over an increasingly small slice of the pie. Consumer attention will only get harder to come by (and harder still to hold). Instead of throwing out the playbook, though, agencies seem to be doubling down on parroting each other’s strategies and messaging. To consumers, that ends up as just a lot of white noise.

Brands, too, aren’t getting their evolving needs met by traditional agencies. For a campaign to thrive, brands need a wealth of trackable metrics. Even in the past six months the insistence on “bottom of funnel metrics” and “tangible ROI” has intensified. They help brands to clearly see who their audience is, how it’s engaging with their message, and how they can adapt and expand. Tech-driven freelancer networks like The Hub can deliver that, while all most traditional agencies track are their billable hours.

Switching from relying on one-track agencies to adaptable networks of freelancers will be a blessing for brands. Agencies operate via top-down vertical communication with creatives, stifling creativity and homogenizing messaging. Freelance networks, on the other hand, thrive off collaboration, encouraging brands and creatives to communicate horizontally. Partners, not bosses. With traditional ad agencies out of the picture, the sky becomes the limit for creative branding.

7. Anti-screen counter-culture will become mainstream

A decade ago, I’d be branded a Luddite for predicting a mainstream backlash against screen culture. Now, I’d say it’s inevitable.

Smartphones have been ubiquitous for the better part of a decade now, and the effects of that are becoming impossible to overlook. 46% of Americans now say they can’t live without their device. “Digital detoxes” have shifted from a Goop-esque indulgence to a necessary breather. Cryptic-sounding phrases like “phantom vibrations,” “blue light,” and “text neck” are now common woes. We’re sick of reflexively jerking our heads when someone else’s phone buzzes. It’s all getting exhausting.

Children, in particular, spend considerably more time on their screens than they do with their friends, their families, and their teachers combined. As anyone who saw can attest, that constant exposure takes a toll. 13-year-old social media users are 27% more likely to be depressed, and children who use seven or more platforms are three times as likely to have anxious or depressive symptoms.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen more and more of the architects of our screen culture speak out against the world they helped create. Former Apple VPs have gone on the record about how addiction was intentionally hardwired into our iPhones and apps. Earlier this year, ex- Google and Facebook employees founded the Center for Humane Technology to pressure tech companies into designing more ethical, conscientious tech. The Center is also targeting 55,000 public schools with educational campaigns about technology addiction. A real backlash is building, and it’s got some muscle behind it, too.

I don’t think we’ll ever see our smartphones regulated by the ATF or the FDA, but regulations encouraging non-addictive UI and UX might not be that far off. I think we’ll also see some new normals around smartphone etiquette, both in public and private, as families and partners set hard limits on phone use and find ways to enforce them.

We may not be able to live without our phones anymore, but we might finally figure out how to live with them.

James Cole

James Cole is a brand and community builder. He’s the CEO and founder of H Collective.

250+ Questions To Ask A Girl If You Want To Know Who She REALLY Is

What’s one thing that’s happened to you in your life that made you feel weak?

Do you have a hunch about how you’re going to die?

What’s one thing you would say that makes you unique from other people?

Do you screenshot the sweet texts that people send you? What is the last one you’ve received?

What would make you leave someone you love?

Is there anything about me as a person or my behaviors that you question?

Click Here

Sponsored

These Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwiches Are Actually Changing People’s Lives

Read more: https://thoughtcatalog.com/james-cole/2018/10/7-bold-predictions-about-the-future-of-media-and-the-world-at-large

from RSSUnify feed https://hashtaghighways.com/2018/10/25/7-bold-predictions-about-the-future-of-media-and-the-world-at-large/

0 notes

astrovksoni · 6 years ago

Text

How to start right in astronomy?

"DEAR friends today we discuss about that how can we start right in astronomy." I have always been fascinated with the stars and universe. What would you suggest my first step be to get into the hobby, so that I might get the most enjoyment out of it?"

It's a good question, one that deserves better answers than most beginners find. Many newcomers to astronomy call us in exasperation after blundering down some wrong trail that leaves them lost and frustrated. Such experiences, widely shared, create a general public impression that astronomy is a tough hobby to get into. But this impression is altogether wrong and unnecessary.

Many other hobbies that have magazines, conventions, and vigorous club scenes have developed effective ways to welcome and orient beginners. Why can't we? For starters, novice astronomers would have more success if a few simple, well-chosen direction signs were posted for them at the beginning of the trail.

What advice would help beginners the most? Sky & Telescope editors brainstormed this question. Pooling thoughts from more than 200 years of collective experience answering the phone and mail, we came up with a number of pointers to help newcomers past the pitfalls and onto the straightest route to success.

1. Ransack your public library. Astronomy is a learning hobby. Its joys come from intellectual discovery and knowledge of the cryptic night sky. But unless you live near an especially large and active astronomy club, you have to make these discoveries, and gain this knowledge, by yourself. In other words, you need to become self-taught.

The public library is the beginner's most important astronomical tool. Maybe you found Sky & Telescopethere. Comb through the astronomy shelf for beginner's guides. Look for aids to learning the stars you see in the evening sky. One of the best is the big two-page sky map that appears near the center of every month's Sky & Telescope, which the library should have. When a topic interests you, follow it up in further books.

Many people's first impulse, judging from the phone calls, is to look for someone else to handle their education -- an evening course offering, a planetarium, or some other third party. These can be stimulating and helpful. But almost never do they present what you need to know right now, and you waste an enormous amount of time commuting when you should be observing. Self-education is something you do yourself, with books, using the library.

2. Learn the sky with the naked eye. Astronomy is an outdoor nature hobby. Go into the night and learn the starry names and patterns overhead. Sky & Telescope will always have its big, round all-sky map for evening star-finding. Other books and materials will fill in the lore and mythology of the constellations the map shows, and how the stars change through the night and the seasons. Even if you go no further, the ability to look up and say "There's Arcturus!" will provide pleasure, and perhaps a sense of place in the cosmos, for the rest of your life.

3. Don't rush to buy a telescope. Many hobbies require a big cash outlay up front. But astronomy, being a learning hobby, has no such entrance fee. Conversely, paying a fee will not buy your way in.

Thinking otherwise is the most common beginner's mistake. Half the people who call for help ask, "How do I see anything with this %@&*# telescope?!" They assumed that making a big purchase was the essential first step.

It doesn't work that way. To put a telescope to rewarding use, you first need to know the constellations as seen with the naked eye, be able to find things among them with sky charts, know something of what a telescope will and will not do, and know enough about the objects you're seeking to recognize and appreciate them.

The most successful, lifelong amateur astronomers are often the ones who began with the least equipment. What they lacked in gear they had to make up for in study, sky knowledge, map use, and fine-tuning their observing eyes. These skills stood them in good stead when the gear came later.

Is there a shortcut? In recent years computerized, robotic scopes have come on the market that point at astronomical objects automatically. They represent an enormous change. No longer do you need to know the sky.

Once fully set up, a computerized scope is a lot faster than the old way of learning the sky and using a map -- assuming you know what's worth telling the computer to point at. But they're expensive, and opinions about them are divided. For beginners, at least, there's some consensus that a computerized scope can be a crutch that prevents you from learning to get around by yourself and will leave you helpless if anything goes wrong. Moreover, you miss out on the pleasures of making your own journeys through the heavens.

At star parties beneath gorgeous black, star-sprinkled skies, we have seen beginners struggling for hours with electronics when they should have been sweeping the heavens overhead. Is this just the carping of old fogeys? The jury is still out.

4. Start with binoculars. A pair of binoculars is the ideal "first telescope," for several reasons. Binoculars show you a wide field, making it easy to find your way around; a higher-power telescope magnifies only a tiny, hard-to-locate spot of sky. Binoculars give you a view that's right-side up and straight in front of you, making it easy to see where you're pointing. An astronomical telescope's view is upside down, sometimes mirror-imaged, and usually presented at right angles to the line of sight. Binoculars are also fairly inexpensive, widely available, and a breeze to carry and store.

And their performance is surprisingly respectable. Ordinary 7- to 10-power binoculars improve on the naked-eye view about as much as a good amateur telescope improves on the binoculars. In other words they get you halfway there for something like a tenth to a quarter of the price -- an excellent cost-benefit ratio.

For astronomy, the larger the front lenses are the better. High optical quality is important too. But anybinocular that's already knocking around the back of your closet is enough to launch an amateur-astronomy career.

5. Get serious about maps and guidebooks. Once you have the binoculars, what do you do with them? You can have fun looking at the Moon and sweeping the star fields of the Milky Way, but that will wear thin after a while. However, if you've learned the constellations and obtained detailed sky maps, binoculars can keep you busy for a lifetime.

They'll reveal most of the 109 "M objects," the star clusters, galaxies, and nebulae cataloged by Charles Messier in the late 18th century. Binoculars will show the ever-changing positions of Jupiter's satellites and the crescent phase of Venus. On the Moon you can learn dozens of craters, plains, and mountain ranges by name. You can split scores of colorful double stars and spend years following the fadings and brightenings of variable stars. If you know what to look for.

A sailor of the seas needs top-notch charts, and so does a sailor of the stars. Fine maps bring the fascination of hunting out faint secrets in hidden sky realms. Many reference books describe what's to be hunted and the nature of the objects you find. Moreover, the skills you'll develop using maps and reference books with binoculars are exactly the skills you'll need to put a telescope to good use.

6. Find other amateurs. Self-education is fine as far as it goes, but there's nothing like sharing an interest with others. There are more than 400 astronomy clubs in North America alone; see the directory on Sky & Telescope's Web site. Call the clubs near you. Maybe you'll get invited to monthly meetings or nighttime star parties and make a lot of new friends. Clubs range from tiny to huge, from moribund to vital. But none would have published a phone number unless they hoped you would call.

Computer networks offer another way to contact other amateurs. CompuServe, America Online, and the Internet all have active astronomy areas. These present a constant flow of interesting news and chatter by amateurs who are quick to offer help, opinions, and advice.

7. When it's time for a telescope, plunge in deep.Eventually you'll know you're ready. You'll have spent hours poring over books and ad brochures. You'll know the different kinds of telescopes, what you can expect of them, and what you'll do with the one you pick.

This is no time to scrimp on quality; shun the flimsy, semi-toy "department store" scopes that may have caught your eye. The telescope you want has two essentials. One is a solid, steady, smoothly working mount. The other is high-quality optics -- "diffraction-limited" or better. You may also want large aperture (size), but don't forget portability and convenience. The telescope shouldn't be so heavy that you can't tote it outdoors, set it up, and take it down reasonably easily. The old saying is true: "The best telescope for you is the one you'll use the most.

Can't afford it? Save up until you can. Another year of using binoculars while building a savings account will be time you'll never regret. It's foolish to blow half-accumulated telescope money on something second rate that will disappoint. Or consider building the scope yourself, an activity that many clubs support.

8. Lose your ego. Astronomy teaches patience and humility -- and you'd better be prepared to learn them. There's nothing you can do about the clouds blocking your view, the extreme distance and faintness of the objects you desire most, or the timing of the long-anticipated event for which you got all set up one minute late. The universe will not bend to your wishes; you must take it on its own terms.

Most of the objects within reach of any telescope, no matter how large or small it is, are barely within its reach. Most of the time you'll be hunting for things that appear very dim, small, or both. If flashy visuals are what you're after, go watch TV.

"Worthiness" is the term entering the amateur language for the humble perseverance that brings the rewards in this hobby. The term was coined by Ken Fulton, author of The Light-Hearted Astronomer(1984) -- a book describing the hobby as a jungle full of snares, quicksand, and wild beasts that only those with the spiritual skills of a martial artist can traverse unmauled. It's really not that bad -- but there are definitely times when a Zen calmness will help you through.

9. Relax and have fun. Part of losing your ego is not getting upset at your telescope because it's less than perfect. Perfection doesn't exist, no matter what you paid. Don't be compulsive about things like cleaning lenses and mirrors or the organization of your observing notebook.

And don't feel compelled to do "useful work" right away. Ultimately, the most rewarding branches of amateur astronomy involve scientific data collecting -- venturing into the nightly wilderness to bring home a few bits of data that will advance humanity's knowledge of the universe in some tiny but real way. Such a project often marks the transformation from "beginner" to "advanced amateur," from casual sightseer to cosmic fanatic. But it only works for some people, and only when they're good and ready.

Amateur astronomy should be calming and fun. If you find yourself getting wound up over your eyepiece's aberrations or Pluto's invisibility, take a deep breath and remember that you're doing this because you enjoy it. Take it only as fast or as slow, as intense or as easy, as is right for you.

#astro_vksoni #astronomy #astrophysicist #astrophysics #cosmologist #cosmology #cosmos #multiverse #physicist #physicists #physics #scientist #space #spacetime #time #universe #science

0 notes

element-effect-blog · 6 years ago

Text

[Free Template] Identify Your Best Sales Leads & Ops With This Prospect Fit Matrix

“Is this prospect actually a good fit for us?”

It’s a simple but challenging question that becomes a repetitive, internal dialogue as sales reps evaluate whether or not the prospect they’re speaking with is the right sales opportunity to pursue.

In the agency world or selling a service, navigating to the right answer regarding the question above involves answering a myriad of ancillary questions around things like:

Do they have the budget?

Do they need the services we’re best at delivering?

What country is their target market in?

Is their leadership team bought in?

Do their core values match our own?

Would their team’s personality align with our own?

With so much to consider, deciding to move forward with a prospect that isn’t a good fit has the ability to wreak havoc deep within your organization, well beyond the sales department.

IMPACT’s sales team has been and will continue to address these types of questions every day.

So, we knew we needed to create a tool to help us navigate the “no,” “maybe,” and “best” fit prospects for our organization.

Before we dive into the solution, however, let’s first understand the “why” behind it.

The Second and Third-order Effects of Working Poor Fit Sales Opportunities

Many of you reading this post are part of growing organizations.

Attracting and retaining net new logos (and quickly) is your path to hiring more people, developing your new product, or any number of other objectives that define success.

Over the years, we’ve learned a TON (the hard way) as one of those growing organizations, but perhaps one of the greatest is understanding the pursuit of a poor fit prospect, and on-boarding them as a client can be as detrimental (or worse) to an organization as making a bad employee hiring decision.

Here are just a couple of the things that can happen when sales reps decide to move forward that may not be a good fit, long-term:

Scenario 1: Unnecessary Meetings

Because sales reps have a tendency to sense if a prospect may not be a good fit, they might ask for multiple meetings outside of the actual process of the sale.

This means pulling in a sales leader (to get the go-ahead or not), and potentially pulling services folks away from other clients for input as well.

Typically, these meetings take a few hours and conclude with a general consensus of everyone still not being sure.

This end-result is a much more costly sales process that, when multiplied across many deals, has a dramatic effect on the “cost of sale” line item on a P&L.

Scenario 2: Low Team Motivation & Poor Output

In this scenario, suppose a prospect that is headquartered outside of your typical service area has progressed through the entirety of your sales process, becoming a client.

Suppose also that their timezone is exactly 12 hours ahead of your own and requires multiple team members of your organization hosting meetings at either 6 am or 8 pm to accommodate the client.

As one could imagine, a meeting at this time may cut into a morning routine or interrupt family time.

Situations like this are demotivating stressors that will most certainly affect the output of the meeting and the follow-on work for a client, eroding team-client trust and potentially the relationship altogether.

In either of the above scenarios (and we’ve seen them both), the end result is a higher cost of sale, a slower sale, and a potentially less productive team.

Making it Easier to Identify Your Best Sales Leads and Opportunities

Up until quite recently, IMPACT’s ideal or best-fit prospect criteria lived in the brains of myself and a few others who are long-time IMPACTers.

However, as our sales team was growing, it was important that we aligned on what those criteria were so we can avoid scenario 1 or 2 or 37.

The Prospect Fit Matrix is our organization’s documented guide for identifying the leads we should be working with, and creating the best possible outcome for IMPACT and Client, together.

Using the Prospect Fit Matrix for Your Organization

The beauty of this template is that it can be customized to fit any sales process or qualification criteria.

In it, you’ll notice the following:

Along the top is a blue bar with the name of the Service, indicating that everyone below is best fit for a particular area of business.

The name of the service also corresponds with sheet (located on the tab at the bottom).

It’s designed in this way because many organizations offer multiple services, each of which may have different qualification criteria around the budget, timing, etc.

The initial two columns make up the “Qualifiers.” Qualifiers are leveraged in two ways.

First, the “Deal Stages” of the sales process need to be identified, then, the “Criteria” that should be evaluated within a specific deal stage.

When using this template, review and customize the criteria you look for when evaluating which prospects to work with and adjust at which stage of the sales process you look for it.

The final three columns represent the “Fit Level” of the prospect.

It’s important to note that it is built for flexibility by having “Best,” “Maybe,” and “No” designators.

In some instances, you may find that there is a single answer for both “Best” and “Maybe.”

In other instances, you may find that some criteria for “No” is not a deal breaker and carries over into “Maybe.”

For example, in the case of IMPACT, “# of sales reps” is one the criteria we evaluate during the “Explore” part of our sales process. A finding of “1+” overlaps both “Best” and “Maybe,” while “0” is a “No.”

Finally, note that underneath the column heading “No,” there is a comment reminding the viewer that although the prospect may not fit specific criteria within a service, it doesn’t mean they’re a poor fit for other services you offer.

Putting The Prospect Fit Matrix Into Practice

The Prospect Fit Matrix is designed to be used before and during every stage of the sales process - from lead qualification to the first conversation to the closing presentation.

Now that you know how it’s setup, here are two examples of how it might be leveraged when assessing the viability of a prospect or sales opportunity.

Example 1: Database Prospecting

Organizations with a healthy database of contacts that are looking to drive more sales conversations proactively (outbound approach), might consider allocating a substantial amount of a Business Development Representatives (BDR) time to culling through those contacts, looking for the right people to reach out to.

When doing so, however, efficiency and timing are the top priority.

Databases can consist of hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of contacts. Even at the smallest numbers, BDRs must have clarity around what makes a contact worthy of outreach in order to narrow their focus.

In the context of this particular example, the matrix assumes you’re using a tool like HubSpot to collect and store lead intelligence on each contact.

Designing the Matrix

In this situation, under the “Deal Stage” (or “Stage” if you’d like to include pre-sales activities) heading, you might use the term “Identify” to label the database prospecting part of the process AND to group together a number of qualifying criteria used when evaluating leads that have converted on your website.

In the next column to the right (“Criteria”), you’ll want to list out the things you know, if they fulfill the “Best” or “Maybe” column, will give you the highest response rates to your outreach.

These criteria might include:

Time Last Seen on Website

# of Pages Viewed

# of Conversions

Company Size

Role of Contact

You’ll then need to further clarify what a “Best, Maybe, or No” fit level looks like. Using the example, “Time Last Seen on Website,” it might break down as follows:

Best: Within the last 30 minutes

Maybe: 30 minutes - 2 days

No: 2 days+

Even with the simple qualifying criteria and descriptions above (as an example), a BDR can quickly isolate a handful of contacts from a list of thousands and dramatically improve the return on their time investment.

Example 2: Actively Listening & Staying Organized

In many cases, salespeople may not have the lead intelligence necessary to disqualify an opportunity before entering a conversation with them (Think: a friend of the organization referring a lead).

In others, they may have qualified an opportunity enough to believe they’re worth the conversation, but aren’t positive they may be a good fit to continue.

In either event, the Prospect Fit Matrix can be used during your conversations (perhaps open on a second monitor) to actively confirm the prospect your speaking with is “checking the boxes” within the “Fit Level” columns.

This gives you the ability to stay organized during your call to make sure you cover the must-have criteria before advancing the prospect to the next stage of the process.

An added benefit of this approach is an improvement of the salesperson’s talk track.

By understanding the outcomes (the criteria that need to be met), they can focus on the articulation of key questions and keep the conversation flowing more naturally.

Eventually, they’ll become more efficient by consolidating multiple questions into one in order to get the prospect to open up regarding certain criteria.

An example of this might be asking, “Can you walk me through a typical sales process from start to finish?” instead of “How long does it usually take to close a deal?” and then “Do you sell directly or through a distribution channel?”

Next Steps

Hopefully, by now, this article was helpful in identifying how important it is to document the qualifiers that make a prospect or sales opportunity a “best fit” for your organization AND how you can get started in scaling that knowledge with the rest of your team.

Download the FREE Prospect Fit Matrix Template here to get started.

Source

https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/identify-best-sales-leads-prospect-fit-matrix-template?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ImpactBrandingDesignBlog+%28IMPACT+Blog%29

0 notes

charactercreationjunkie · 8 years ago

Quote

Take 10d8 in emotional bludgeoning damage.

an account of Nasir Angulin, played by me, in a weekly homebrew 5th ed game

Okay so for slight refresher - Nasir lost his wife and child to a plague that killed most of his village. His wife died and his son lasted only a day or so longer.

Fast forward to present time

Nasir has become a decently powerful Warlock, we just hit level 10, aligned with the demon Belial. Due to ridiculous shenanigans and interesting homebrew mechanics/plotlines, Nasir currently has a Tome that holds the soul of his eternally 8 year old son, Zia, who does not realize he is dead, nor that 10 years have passed since his mother Clara died.

So our party includes Oswin, a paladin of the Raven Queen who has about as extensive a backstory as Nasir does XD

She had in the past lost a band of soldiers to a lich named Ainz, whom they had attempted to kill and instead were slaughtered by, save Oswin.

Oswin was branded with the names of her fellow soldiers on her arm, and given a crusade by the Raven Queen to put them each to rest, because Ainz had taken their souls and trapped them when he made them into undead followers.

So, as any good GM would, this became a plot hook we have run into several times during the campaign.

Our last arch, we had been tasked with aiding a druid circle with destroying a vampire, who we knew to be a lieutenant of Ainz’s

We succeeded, only to realize that the vampire we killed was a decoy and not who we thought she was.

However, seeing as the vampire, and those she had spawned in her time there had been killed or mysteriously vanished, we considered our task to be done and returned to our keep (we are rich motherfuckers) outside of the city to go and collect our payment.

So we have stepped into the keep, turn the corner from the courtyard, and lo and behold there is a familiar lich standing inside the gate.

Now, we have gained a new character since the last time we encountered Ainz, and he happens to be a barbarian. So, doing as any good barbar should, he shouts “Lich!” and proceeds to charge, landing what should have been a pretty damaging blow.

Of course, it does fuck all, and he suddenly has a HUGE battleax rested on his throat by a female half-ogre. Thus we are semi-forced to have a sit-down with Ainz, lest ya know, he slaughter our barbarian.

So Ainz states that we have been an annoyance and have delayed some of his plans. He does not like this and wants to know why. Now, half of our party is chaotic neutral….at best XD

So we tell him, truthfully, that we were getting paid to. It was an added perk for Oswin, but most of us just wanted the money.

As any good businessman, Ainz offers to buy us off in order to have us keep out of his affairs. He offers the typical: power, knowledge lost to the ages, riches….a soul of a deceased loved one…

That being stated, Oswin outright refuses, and it has to be a group decision. As we cannot come to a consensus without her, the tiefling bard (Ah'Rey) and Nasir, apologize but admit that we cannot accept his offer as a group.

(Because we have manners goddammit)

Ainz, having assumed this would happen, gives the ultimatum that the next time we interfere, he will have to kill us, which we agree, is to be expected. He still has the barbarian, however, and states that his punishment will be in the form of death, of course.

We bargain for the barbarian’s life and settle on the idea of a duel - Ainz’s champions against us. We win, the barbarian lives; we lose, his champions have proven their worth, and rid him of an annoyance.

So we are transported to an arena of sorts, that is enclosed - however, our cleric (Tavrey), notices that from what he can see outside the arena, we are either flitting between time, space, or elsewise.

This is unfortunately not something we can focus on at that moment, as Ainz summons the remainder of Oswin’s soldier friends to fight us, pulling two aside (as they have already become more substantial NPCs), in order to make room for the eighth fighter - a blonde woman knight.

Obviously, Nasir recognizes his WIFE immediately and is basically useless during the fight.

Distressed and coming to the realization that his deal with Belial has cost his wife and child potentially eternity, he invokes the goddess Larani, his wife’s patron during her life.

(I wrote a page long prayer, by hand, before the end of my next turn and handed it to the GM XD)

In calling on Larani, Nasir begs for her forgiveness for his arrogance. Knowing that he was never her follower, he puts aside the matter of his own soul and instead beseeches her to deliver Clara and Zia into her grace. He releases his son from his control, giving him willingly to the goddess.

He feels the goddess’ power wash over him, reaching for the souls…only to be rebuffed and cut off. Ainz gives him an amused look and chides him for attempting to bring insiders into the duel.

Nasir realizes that Ainz is storing the souls of those killed during the duel so as to use them as barganing chips later. He moves to Clara and drops 9d8 fire damage on her, which ignores resistance. She drops and Nasir does nothing offensive for the rest of the fight, basically collapsing and just staring at the remains of his wife.

The fight lasts another round or so before we’ve killed the remaining soldiers. (It took maybe 4 rounds total - it was intentionally lopsided). Ainz voices his disappointment at the slain combatants and prepares to depart.

Nasir and Oswin, of course, attempt to bargain for the souls. Tavrey, however, realizes that while we were engaged in a relatively short combat, 4 years have passed. Our keep is in ruins, and the mage tower of the Empress in the city has become blackened.

We then have to launch into negotiations about how many souls vs years we can get back for the price of our black blades (homebrewed plot elements - think triforce pieces, but there are seven of them and Ainz already has one. Uber powerful, uber dangerous in his hands).

We haggle down the following deal: two souls, we are transported back to 6 months after the duel began - rather than 4 years, and Ainz gets to have two of our black blades to study for an hour.

Now, lich timelock equates an hour into 600 years. Because, lich.

So Ah'Rey and Nasir quickly volunteer their blades, because fuck giving Ainz the HOLY blades that Oswin and Tavrey have, and Dirz (our sorcerer), has a pretty powerful blade that he can cast fireballs out of without expending spellslots.

So!

We are then stuck in the HolyFuck!Dystopian future for an hour. Luckily Tavrey has a sending spell and quickly locates one of our old players’ characters turned uber-powerful NPC, Varris.

Varris, after recovering from the initial WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GUYS GO?!! teleports in with his wife, Nasir’s earlier in the campaign love interest, Pela.

Pela = badass dwarven BardBarian

They explain that within those 4 years, things have literally gone to hell. Ainz had appeared with copies of black blades, given out to hordes of undead soldiers. Black blade damage cannot be healed, by magical or spiritual means.

Needless to say, most resistance was cut down quickly, but the Empress’ city stood as a stronghold against the onslaught.

That was until the demon queen arrived.

She quickly ABSORBED all of the black blades and destroyed Ainz, who attempted to stand against her. She and her consort then moved on to destroy the Empress, the Druid circle, and later, the gods.

Now, at hearing this, Nasir becomes a curious little idiot.

And reaches out with his mental link to Belial. He immediately drops to the ground in pain and sheer awe of the response he gets through his mind.

(aka, Wisdom saving throw vs a 19)

(major ow)

Belial, being the egomaniac he is, materializes. He radiates power that he in NO WAY EVER could have possessed from when Nasir knew him

He, of course, is the demon queen’s consort.

All I can say is THANK FUCK, Nasir had taken a Warlock feat that gave him proficiency in deception….and got him monologuing XD

We get to about 10 minutes before Ainz’s hour is up, when Belial comes to the realization that Nasir has been stalling.

Of course, he’s amused but does insist that we have to worship him, or we will be killed. Nasir, expresses his hurt at the statement: “Belial, my friend… you have my soul for all eternity…how would I do anything but serve you?”

It gives Varris and Pela enough time to get their weapons ready XD

We bolt, letting Varris and Pela hold Belial off for the last few minutes. They, of course, are killed horribly.

We make it to the treeline, with Tavrey informing Ainz we’ve changed locations, just as we hear the low haunting sound of a taunting voice: “Come out, come out…”

The scenery flickers, and suddenly the trees are full with foliage; it is spring, and we are 6 months forward in the timeline from where we began

That is where we ended last night.

#tales from the table #d&d 5e #homebrew #character: nasir #//actually this happened like....6 months ago now #but I had this saved as a draft on another blog #so here ya go #you got me monologuing #yes Belial actually said that #my DM was so giddy

0 notes