Episode - 004- What to do When Technology is Killing You
In this episode, we focus on what to do when technology is giving you a hard time.
Trust me, even as a tech expert I have regularly one of those days when technology is just killing me. I figured that many times, it doesn't even depend on us! So, before the next tech challenge or disaster happens, I want you to know what to do - because it is exactly my same approach.
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Full transcription
Hello and welcome to episode 4 of the Online Business Tech Hub. Today, we have a rather interesting episode, and this episode was inspired by something that happened directly to me. I wanted to share this with you because it's something absolutely not exceptional. So today's topic is what to do when technology is killing you. And what I mean by this is that it probably happened to you as well that, you know, some days nothing works. There are some days when you know no software, no matter how hard you try, they just don't work.
OK, so I want to share with you that this is absolutely normal. No matter what you do, the software you're trying to set up will not work. This is what happened to me. Some time ago, maybe last month. I was setting up a webinar for a client, I was setting up WebinarJam, and WebinarJam was supposed to talk to ConvertKit so that we could register the attendees to the webinar, send them a confirmation email, or send them the unique link that JamWebinar generates to access the live room and so on.
And then at the same time, I was supposed to set social proof notifications on the website for every purchase of this program using Stripe. And then I had to set ConvertKit so that the right tags would be applied to those who registered for the webinar. Well, on the same day, nothing worked. I'm not kidding you. WebinarJam was not talking to ConvertKit. No matter how many times I deleted the webinar and set it up all over again.
I reconnect Webinarjam to talk to ConvertKit. It wasn't working. And I mean, that wasn't really the first time I had done it.
I had done it already many other times, then ConvertKit was happily duplicating tags. So I had contacts with like two or three of the same tags and it was just freaking out. And it was a big problem because if you know a bit about ConvertKit, you know that they don't have lists or groups, but they use tags so that you can subscribe contacts to a specific email automation. And you can only do that using tags and ConvertKit had a problem with tags and then these social proof, software-wise or not, it wasn't displaying their payments, that came in via Skype.
No matter what I did, no matter what I tried, no matter the time I spent with customer service that day, literally nothing was working and technology was killing me. OK, so if you repel technology and you're not really great with technology, trust me, there are those days when it just doesn't depend on you, you know, it just happens regularly, it happens to everyone. So you're not the only one. OK, I'm a tech expert and it happens to me as well. And it does happen regularly.
Later on, I found out that on that specific day, Mercury was retrograde. Now, don't get me wrong, I usually don't believe in these things, OK? But it made me think that you know, I had heard, obviously, that when Mercury is retrograde, it's supposed to affect technology and so on. But I had never connected it to things. Now, I don't know if this is real or not, but I can tell you that on that day, Mercury was in retrograde and nothing worked.
OK, so what did I do? The best thing you can do when this happens to you, it's very, very simple. Just let go. Go and do something else and go for a walk, bake a pie, make some hot chocolate. I don't know. But do something else, do some sport. But please do not spend any more time on that piece of technology, because trust me, no matter what you do, it will not work.
OK, the thing is that whether it depends on mercury, which is in retrograde or not, or it's just a bad day if you try a lot to make a software work and it's not working you will just get more and more upset and frustrated. And the more frustrated you get, the easier it is that you will miss the tiny little detail, the tiny setting that might solve all your problems. OK, because when it does depend on us when it depends on me often, a lot of times it depends on the fact that maybe I overlooked a tiny setting, a little detail.
And I can't see it because I am so much into the process and then growing more and more frustrated that I just don't see it. That's why the best thing you can do is literally walk away and do something else and get back to it the following day. Not even later. Not even later, because your frustration is still really fresh. So give it a day, unless, of course, you are on a tight deadline. That is another thing that you need to keep in mind, if you like me, in Europe or in the U.K., many softwares are hosted in the states, their servers are in the states.
They are American companies. So many times in the night, their server, the software will do the updates. So when we try to set those softwares during our daytime in the states is actually night or early morning. So it's more common, more frequent that because they're doing updates that we might get malfunctioning and tons of frustration.
OK, so these bumps on the way, many times are just out of your control, so don't spend so much time. When something isn't working, the best thing you can do if you really have to make it work now it's taking a little break and maybe reaching out for advice to the customer service if they're online. But make sure that you have calmed down because if you get in touch with the customer service when you are really frustrated, you risk leaving out important details, and I mean, obviously, they are there with you. So, it can be a bit challenging for the customer service to follow what you've been doing if you are really frustrated and nervous.
OK, so this is my advice when you have those days when just nothing is working, it's normal. It happens to me as well. It happens to anyone sometimes software just doesn't work. Sometimes it's the printer that goes mad. And yeah, because printers are actually my worst enemy. So yeah, I'm a tech person, but I hate printers, so, you know, everyone has their tech monsters, tech gremlins, OK?
When these tech gremlins hit, then, trust me, the best thing you can do is walk away, get some fresh air, do some sports, just get your head out of what you were doing and then go back to that software a bit later on or the following day.
Don't think that it always depends on your inability or incompetence with technology, because many times it's out of your control.
So, this was a brief episode, but I really wanted to share this because it came up for me. It came up recently for a client of mine. And when one day just nothing worked, the microphone wouldn't work. We were supposed to have a zoom call and no matter what she did, it just didn't work. And then, you know, she had a lot of other challenges.
Sometimes it's just like that, you have the choice of getting upset about it, getting frustrated, and keep trying. Or you have the option to accept how it is and go and do something else, get back to it on the following day and you will see that the problem, most likely will be solved if it was dependent on the software.
And if not, your mind will be a lot fresher and you will have taken some distance from the problem. So you are able to explain the situation, the issues to the customer service in a much better way. Right, so that's it for this episode. Don't forget Kick Start Your E-mail Marketing, which is the 5-day free e-mail course that will help you pick the right software, the right e-mail marketing software, so you can start to grow an absolutely engaged list of raving fans.
It's an absolutely free course. It's very simple. I guide you step-by-step with video editorials, so don't miss out! You can find the link to register in the show notes. And also don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss the latest episodes. And that's it for today.
I will talk to you next week.
Bye bye.