Latest / RealTalkwithMikeD / Episode 62 - The Power of Social Media

Transcript

Episode 62 - The Power of Social Media · RealTalkwithMikeD

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Real Talk with Mike D. Alright, welcome back
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to Real Talk with Mike D. I am the one,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the only, and the original Mike D. Ladies and gentlemen,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: today we're talking about something that has completely changed the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: world we live in. Something that can make you laugh,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: make you angry, inspire you, connect you with people you
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: haven't seen in 30 years, help you build a business,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: or even give you a voice when you feel like
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: nobody is listening. I'm talking about the power of social media.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: You know, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube X, and all the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: other platforms that have become part of our everyday lives.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Think about it for a second. You wake up in
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the morning, and what is one of the first things
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: many people do as soon as they wake up? I'll
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: give you a second. You guessed it, they reach for
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: their phones. Even before they've had their coffee, before they
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: eat breakfast, and sometimes before they even say good morning
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to the person sleeping next to them. They are checking
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: their social media. They want to know who's posting, who's commenting,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: what is happening in the world, who got married, who's
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: having a baby, who's on vacation, and maybe who's arguing
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: with that person they haven't seen in 20 years. But
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: behind all those posts, videos, pictures, and comments is something
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: much bigger than a screen. It's the power to connect people,
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  Speaker 1: share ideas, tell stories, build communities, and give ordinary people
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to be heard. And that's what I want
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: to talk about today. Because social media isn't just about
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: getting likes, it's about what you do with the opportunity
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you've been given. So grab your coffee. Grab your tea,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: grab your soda, get comfortable, and let's get into it.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: But first, please allow me to take a sip of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: my coffee. God, that tastes good. Now, you know what
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I find fascinating about social media? It's that you don't
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: have to be famous to have a voice anymore. You
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: don't have to be a television personality anymore. You don't
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: have to be a millionaire. You don't need a record deal,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: a publishing contract, or a big corporation standing behind you.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: You can be an ordinary person like me with a phone,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: an idea, and something to say. And that idea might
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: reach someone on the other side of the country or
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: even the other side of the world. Think about that.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Years ago, if you wanted to get your message out
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: to thousands of people, you usually needed access to television, radio, newspapers,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: or some other major platform. Today, you can record a
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: video in your living room, upload it, and potentially reach
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: thousands of people without ever leaving your house. Ladies and gentlemen,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: that is incredible. That is one of the reasons I
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: believe so strongly in what I'm doing here with Real
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Talk with Mike D. I wanted a platform where I
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: could speak honestly. A place where I could discuss life, struggles, relationships,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: mental health. And you know, I don't need to pretend
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: to be somebody else. I don't need to act like
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I have all the answers. I just need to be myself.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And that is the beauty of social media. It gives
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: people an opportunity to show the world who they really are,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: what they care about, and what they believe in. Now,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Does everybody want to hear what I have to say?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Absolutely not. And that is okay. I'm not here to
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: make everybody happy. I'm here to be honest, share my perspective,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and hopefully make somebody think. Because sometimes one honest conversation
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: can mean more than a thousand meaningless posts. Now, I
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: know you out there, and myself included, we all have dreams.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Maybe you wanted to start a business. Maybe you want
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to become a musician. Maybe you want to write a book.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe you want to start a podcast, share your art,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: or build a community around something you love. And for years,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: you might have thought, how am I ever going to
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  Speaker 1: make this happen? Then along comes social media, and suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: you have a way to introduce yourself to the entire world.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: You can share your work. You can find people with
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: similar interests. You can learn from others who have already
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: walked the road you're trying to travel. And you can
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: start small. You don't have to wait until everything is perfect.
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  Speaker 1: You don't need the fanciest equipment. You don't need a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: million followers. And you don't even need everybody you know
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: to support you. Sometimes you just need to take that
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  Speaker 1: first step. And let me tell you something, that first
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  Speaker 1: step can be scary. You put yourself out there and
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  Speaker 1: you wonder what people are going to think. Are they
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: going to laugh at me? Are they going to criticize me?
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  Speaker 1: Are they going to ignore me? Will anybody even care?
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  Speaker 1: Those questions can get inside your head. But here's what
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  Speaker 1: I've learned. If you spend your entire life worrying about
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  Speaker 1: what other people might think, you may never discover what
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  Speaker 1: you're capable of doing. At some point, you've got to
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  Speaker 1: stop waiting for permission. You've got to stop waiting for
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  Speaker 1: somebody to tell you that your dream is important. You've
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: got to start working toward it. That's what building something
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  Speaker 1: is all about. Some days you might get plenty of attention.
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  Speaker 1: Other days you might post something you've worked hard on
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  Speaker 1: and hear absolutely nothing. Crickets. You hear crickets. No comments.
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  Speaker 1: No shares. No encouragement. And yes, that can be frustrating.
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  Speaker 1: But do not confuse a quiet day with failure. Sometimes
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: growth happens slowly. Sometimes you're learning more than you realize.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: And sometimes the people who will appreciate your work simply
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: have not found you yet. You have to keep learning,
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  Speaker 1: keep improving, and keep showing up because you never know
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  Speaker 1: which post, which video, which episode or idea might open
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  Speaker 1: a door you never, ever expected. Now, I'd be lying
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  Speaker 1: to you if I didn't tell you there was a
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  Speaker 1: dark side of social media. Social media isn't all sunshine
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  Speaker 1: and rainbows. It has a dark side and pretending otherwise
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  Speaker 1: would be dishonest. For all the ways social media can
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: bring people together, it can also make people feel more alone.
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  Speaker 1: Think about that. You open your phone and see somebody
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  Speaker 1: taking a vacation in the Caribbean. Somebody else just bought
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: a brand new house. Another person is showing off a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: brand new car. Somebody is celebrating an anniversary. Another person
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: just got promoted. and somebody else is posting pictures of
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: their perfect-looking family. And there you are, sitting on your
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: couch after a long day, trying to figure out how
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: you're going to make it through another week. You start
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: comparing your life to theirs. You wonder why things seem
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: to work out for everybody else. You start asking yourself,
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  Speaker 1: what am I doing wrong? But here's the problem. You're
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: comparing your entire life to somebody else's reels. You see
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the vacation, but you don't see the credit card bill.
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  Speaker 1: You see the smiling couple, but you don't know what's
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: happening behind closed doors. You see the expensive car, but
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you don't know whether the person driving it is struggling financially.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: And you see the success, but you might not see
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the years of disappointment, hard work, rejection, and sacrifice that
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: came before it. Social media shows us what people choose
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  Speaker 1: to share. It doesn't automatically show us the complete story.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why we have to be careful. Your life
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  Speaker 1: doesn't become less valuable because somebody else is doing well.
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  Speaker 1: Your accomplishments don't become meaningless because somebody else has more followers.
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  Speaker 1: And your journey isn't a failure just because it doesn't
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: look like somebody else's. You are allowed to move at
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: your own pace. You are allowed to have a bad
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: day and you are allowed to struggle without announcing every
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: detail of that struggle to the world. And you are
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  Speaker 1: allowed to put your phone down and take care of yourself. Remember,
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  Speaker 1: social media is supposed to be a tool you use.
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  Speaker 1: It shouldn't become a scoreboard that determines how you feel
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  Speaker 1: about your own life. And I want to talk about
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  Speaker 1: one more thing. I want to talk about likes, comments,
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  Speaker 1: and followers. We live in a world where people can
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: post a picture and immediately start checking to see how
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: many people like it. Five minutes go by, they're checking again.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Ten minutes go by, they're checking again. An hour later,
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  Speaker 1: they're wondering why their post didn't get as much attention
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  Speaker 1: as somebody else's. And suddenly, a number on a screen
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  Speaker 1: is affecting their mood. Listen, I get it. I understand that.
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  Speaker 1: When you create something, you want people to see it.
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  Speaker 1: You want people to respond. You want to know that
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  Speaker 1: your time and effort means something. There's nothing wrong with that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: appreciating support. But there's a difference between enjoying encouragement and
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  Speaker 1: depending on it for your self-worth. Your value as a
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  Speaker 1: human being cannot be measured by the number of likes
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  Speaker 1: on a picture. Your value as a human being cannot
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  Speaker 1: be measured by by the number of likes on a picture.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you get that because that is a very
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  Speaker 1: important sentence. I'm going to repeat it one more time
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  Speaker 1: because I want you to understand that. Your value as
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  Speaker 1: a human being cannot be measured by the number of
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  Speaker 1: likes on a picture. Now, you can have 100,000 followers
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  Speaker 1: and still feel lonely. You can have 50 likes on
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  Speaker 1: a post and still have made a genuine difference in
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  Speaker 1: somebody's life. And you can publish something that barely gets
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  Speaker 1: noticed publicly while one person quietly reads it and thinks, wow,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: somebody finally understands what I'm going through. You might never
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: know who needed to hear your message. That's the thing
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  Speaker 1: about having a voice. You don't always get to see
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  Speaker 1: the impact it makes. So stop letting the algorithm determine
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  Speaker 1: your happiness. Stop treating every post like it's an audition
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  Speaker 1: for approval. Create because you have something to say. Share
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  Speaker 1: because you have something worth sharing. And celebrate the people
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: who support you without believing that the people who don't
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  Speaker 1: engage somehow determine your worth. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that
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  Speaker 1: is going to do it for today's episode. I greatly
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: appreciate you being here. I greatly appreciate you listening. Go
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: out there. Start your business. Start a podcast. Showcase your art.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Record that music. And use social media for everything that
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: it can do for you. But until the next episode,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: please be the reason someone smiles. And I hope you
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: all have a wonderful day.