"C.A.T.s vs. D.O.G.s"
After spending a decade at a large publishing company and the last few years running it, I’ve found that there are two types of people you typically run into when you accumulate any level of authority or influence.
“C.A.T.s" and “D.O.G.s"
CATs are the people who COMPLAIN-ASK-TAKE, you know the type, because if you’re like me you probably were one at one point or maybe you still are one.
You see an influencer or owner online and you message them with an “ask" (help me!), or a “take" (give me!) and “complain" when you don’t get it (poor me!)
Not pointing fingers, we’ve all done it...
D.O.G.s, on the other hand, are people who are DEDICATED-OPTIMISTIC-GIVERS, the type of people who provide value first, with ZERO expectation of getting anything in return.
The type of spark plug that genuinely makes your day better. That genuinely contributes to others because they WANT to. That shows up every day and brings the best they have to the table.
Being a data geek (and a nerdy engineer), I kept track of this for a while and I found while running the company I dealt with C.A.T.s vs. D.O.G.s at a rate of about 10-to-1 on any given day, but WAY higher on Mondays.
And that’s with a traditional, old-school brick and mortar company.
Now imagine you are an influencer. You have an audience in the tens or even hundreds of thousands.
They see your posts and consume your content. It creates a HIGH level of familiarity (and it’s supposed to, that’s kind of the point).
But now imagine you are getting hundreds, maybe thousands of messages from the people who consume your content.
And let’s assume it’s CATs to DOGs at a rate of 10-to-1 like I have in a brick and mortar (I’d be willing to guess it’s as much as 10x that).
So your friendly neighborhood influencer is listening to CATs screech (COMPLAINERS-ASKERS-TAKERS) by the hundreds, maybe thousands…
Every…
Single…
DAY!
But you are upset that they didn’t spend enough time responding to your CATty message.
They had only heard the same thing 179 times this morning.
- So a Monday Challenge for you -
Message your favorite influencer and DON’T:
COMPLAIN - ASK - or TAKE!
Instead, offer to give them your dedicated support and unwavering optimism. Expect NOTHING in return… Maybe not even a reply.
WHY?
Because that’s what DOGs do.
In a world of CATs, be a DOG!