Auto Repair Shop Owners: Your FOCUS is being STOLEN!

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                                 (Estimated Read Time 4 minutes)

I've been talking about focus lately. I hear shop owners, clients, and non-clients alike, tell me, “Rick, I have a problem with focus. I just can't do it.” You are blaming yourself for your focus deficit. But it's not your fault. I don't want you to blame yourself for this anymore. It's being stolen. That's right. Your focus is being stolen. Let me explain. There was a psychologist, BF Skinner. who came up with a concept called behaviorism. Now, some of you may have heard of this before. There was a scientist in Russia, I believe it was, Pavlov, who had dogs. Every time he fed them, he rang a bell. He did this for quite some time. And then one day he didn't feed them, he just rang the bell. The bell itself caused his dogs to salivate. They associated that bell with food. So they automatically started salivating when they heard the bell.

Pavlov’s dogs began to salivate every time they heard the bell.

What's happening to us is kind of the same thing. Social media is teaching us to associate a reward with an action. That's what behaviorism is all about. It’s associating a reward with an action. So what's the reward? How many of you, come on, be honest, have put a post or a video on social media and you are looking to see how many likes it got or how many hearts it got, or how many times it’s viewed? How many shares does it have? That's super important to understand.

The more likes you get, the better it feels!

I'm the same way. I put a video out there and I want to see how many views it has. I want to see what kind of impact I've had. Then I see that number and it feels good or feels bad. It either makes me want to do more or do it differently to get people's attention. I want to be accepted. I know you guys, you're putting stuff out there for yourselves, and your shops, and you want it to get some traction. Then when you see those likes, those hearts, those shares, that's the trigger. And the reward is dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical in your brain that is released when it does something right that makes you feel good.

Likes, hearts, and shares result in dopamine shots and keep you coming back for more.

So let me give you an example of a dopamine shot. How many of you have ever had a checklist of things to do? Then you did something that wasn't on the checklist. You wrote it on the checklist and checked it off? Come on, be honest. I do it all the time. I want that recognition. I want to recognize it myself. Why we do that is because we get a shot of dopamine. We don't even realize it, but it's that brain crack that makes the difference.

Social Media makes BIG BUCKS on YOU!

So let me ask you a question. Why do you think social media is doing this to us? They're doing it because they make money off of you. How are they making money? First, it’s with ads. I spend money on ads. It's one of the ways we attract people to the 180BIZ methodology and thought process. So that's one way that social media makes money.

There are BIG BUCKS in Psychographics, too!

What does that mean? They learn about you and your likes and what you want.  It’s scary to see how so much they know about you. They know what you like. They know when you consume content. They know what kind of content you consume. They know how long you're on there. And they start to pull together some pretty disturbing information about you. Then they sell that information. For example, let's say a business out there has determined that its ideal client is someone who likes Donald Trump. And they watch a lot of stuff about rifles and firearms and watch videos about clay shooting. You would then see ads about clay shooting and perhaps sport shooting accessories.  And all of a sudden you see ads for biometric handgun safes.

 YOU are NOT their customer, YOU ARE their PRODUCT!

Social media will sell information and get a lot of money from some very big corporations. Think this through carefully. I want you to hear this. You are not a customer of social media. You are not Facebook's customer. You are not Instagram's customer. You're not LinkedIn's customer. You are their product. They're selling you and they do whatever they can to keep you scrolling. And that’s stealing your focus.

If you want to watch a really good documentary on this, watch The Social Dilemma on NetFlix.

Take care. God bless. Stay safe and go make some money.

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