Words of Wisdom from TheCamel

Internet Typhoon

Shane Hodge • October 13, 2022

These past weeks, good old mother nature has really packed a nasty punch. In the Philippines, it's the “Rainy Season” which means guaranteed everyday it’s best to pack your umbrella and a hat as sooner or later the clouds will roll in and whoosh a major downpour, making planning a day out a risky proposition.

On top of the daily routine, it's typhoon time and every week there is some little cloud out in the ocean that takes some wind and rain steroids and then the press does the same and next thing you know there is talk (read fear) of Super Typhoons, batten down the hatches, houses are gunna fly, water will be deep, lives will be over. Last week we had one of those, but like most of them, it was all huff and puff and as soon as it hit land? Pfft it was just a storm.

Then in Florida, they had Ian. Yep, Ian was a little cloud that took some deep breaths, sucked up a whole bunch of ocean, and in a short period of time, hit the coast as a hurricane (same as a typhoon) and billions of dollars of damage and loss of life. It was sad and terrible. But it's a gamble you take when you choose to live in a tropical paradise or close to the ocean huh, like it or not, sooner or later, one of those storms will hit hard and you may have nothing left.

Most people still stay, most people just grab that mop and bucket, hammer and nails, and start all over again. Very few move, they just wait it out for the next one and pray it won't be “super”.

Typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and tsunamis are terrible natural disasters. Yep, you can get a little notice, but in reality, they hit and only when it's over can you see the damage, make a plan, and get to rebuild. They take you by surprise, can ruin you, or they can make you. Before it happens, most people would not be thinking “today is Natural Disaster Day”. Life would be pretty much normal from the time the rooster crows till the moment the stars start to shine.

Yes, people may have an emergency plan, or a survival bag packed, but normally everything inside has passed its used-by date and the batteries are flat before you get to use it.

Where is this blog going? Like so far it sounds pretty gloomy, not my normal happy-go-lucky, full of humor, and brilliant ideas. Well, hold the bus kids. Like Christmas? It's coming.

All this natural disaster, no advance warning, OMG what would you do stuff made me think. What if the internet and social media had a disaster? What if a flood ripped through all those buildings holding the “cloud” (funny really, the cloud is actually on the ground LOL) An earthquake rocked it all and millions of gigabytes fell into a big deep crack in mother earth?

What if the repair time was months? OK, it was only an internet thing (don't want to ruin the plot of this story). Yep, houses still stand, nobody died, and people still have jobs but, NO Social Media, NO Google, NO Youtube, it was just some strange ecological algorithm that went viral and knocked all that stuff out.

What's in your disaster recovery bag? What would you put in place to make sure the wheels of commerce keep turning? What are the safety blankets, the MREs, the alkaline batteries, and first-aid supplies of your business should the internet algorithm AI-driven tsunami hit?

Good question huh? I guess those born before fax machines, landlines, stamps on letters, printers, talking to each other might be having heart palpitations at this stage, and all those that still know how to drive a manual car might be thinking wow back in the day now.

No facebook posts about your last offering, no tik tok videos of your dancing staff or you in a tutu, no obsession with google's front page, no PPC, no SEO, OMG, can you imagine it?

Well, actually back in the dark ages less than 13 years ago there was no Facebook, 25 years ago there was no Google, and 25 years ago there was no internet at all. Yes, my dear readers not so long ago, we had nothing. Nothing and hello we still did business and we built great businesses, we sold things and we sold a lot, we had customers and wow they were actually loyal, we survived for a lot longer than 25 years.

So, in reality? An internet tsunami you could and would survive, you would make it to the promised land of a restored connection, and have a “thank you Jesus” moment.

I actually ask this question on all my webinars, “What would you do if there was an internet tsunami?” and I have to say every guest class it as one of the best questions as you really have to think.

We were a lot more creative back then than we had to be. There was no autopilot AI, a lot more into networking, relationships, LIVE and in person.

Now at this stage, I would normally start to roll off ideas, thoughts and actions, but my dear thrill seekers, today is not that day as we are going to have part two of this blog.

Today I'm going to leave you with that question, “What would happen if there was an internet tsunami?” and let you grab a cold beer or a warm coffee and ponder.

Then next month when I write part two, “After The Rain Has Stopped” then we can throw some ideas around of emergency actions, lifeboats, rescue planes etc, etc.

Big Hugs to all. Stay Dry.

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