Sometimes when we try to use technology to solve problems, there's an easier way.
Hey everybody.
It's Jay Baer with another Jay Today, where I give you a piece of my mind three minutes
at a time.
Coming to you live today from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
This is actually Lake Michigan behind me, I promise, but it is enshrouded in fog today.
I want to tell you a story about technology and human beings.
This is a story that actually happened to me on Thanksgiving recently.
I went over to a friend's house for Thanksgiving with another couple.
They have a farm in Indiana.
It's probably 20, 25 minutes from town.
We were going to fry the turkey, which I highly recommend actually.
If you haven't tried that, you really should.
It's delicious.
So I brought the turkey.
My buddy brought the fryer and the oil.
We got ready to put the turkey on and realized that we, alas, did not have enough oil, a
little short on the oil.
So we begrudgingly decided to head back to town.
As I said, it's a bit of a hike to do that, and I didn't have my wallet, so we took his
car.
We drove to the grocery store, and as we pulled into the grocery store, he realized that he
did not have his wallet either.
So here we are, it's now 4:15 on Thanksgiving.
Store closes at 5:00.
Bird is now late for being cooked, and we do not have oil, nor do we have any money.
So we actually went into the grocery store, talked to the manager and said, "Hey, can
we have somebody call in with a credit card number?"
"No, we don't do that."
So we called my buddy's wife and said, "Hey, can you bring us some money?"
She's not too happy about that because she's hanging out, and now she's got to get in the
car and come bring us money.
So meanwhile, she's driving, and I said, "Well, let's make sure we even have oil."
They do have the oil.
I said, "Well, I'm sure there's a way that I can pay for this, right?
I'm a technology guy."
So I'm going through my phone, exhaustively going through my iPhone.
I'm like, "Okay, I've got the PayPal app.
Can I pay with that?"
"No."
"Does this grocery store have iPay, because of course I've got iPay on my phone?"
"No, it doesn't do that."
"Can I somehow use my AmEx app?"
"No."
"Can I somehow use my banking app?"
"No."
Went through like seven or eight different apps.
None of them, none of them would help me pay for some oil on Thanksgiving.
So desperate times call for desperate measures.
As his wife is driving to the grocery store to save us, my buddy says, "Well, what we
if we just ask somebody?"
That actually had never occurred to me, and it kind of concerns me that it never occurred
to me.
But he actually went up to the last guy in line, a guy who was just off work, covered
in drywall mud, carrying a gallon jug of cookies and cream ice cream, which is apparently his
contribution to his Thanksgiving, and says, "Hey, let me tell you a story.
My buddy and I here aren't that smart.
We're here to get some oil.
We've got to get the oil quick because this bird's got to get in the oil, and neither
one of us have any money.
So could you please loan us $15, and we will pay you $40 tomorrow?"
Guy looks us up and down, makes sure we're not part of a criminal syndicate, says, "Sure,
absolutely."
So I took down his name and number.
He took our name and number, got the oil, went back, cooked the turkey.
Fantastic.
Next morning, returned his $40.
It was a heck of a profit for that guy.
So sometimes, when we're trying to use technology to solve all of these problems, maybe it would
be easier just to ask somebody.
Instead of trying to use the Uber for whatever -- I read an article the other day, it said
there's like 115 different Uber for whatever's out there -- maybe you could just ask somebody
for a ride.
Maybe you could just ask somebody to bring you pizza.
Maybe you could just ask somebody to figure out how to do your taxes.
Sometimes I think we fall in love with technology to the detriment of ourselves, and that is
including me, ladies and gentlemen.
Today's Sprout Social Shoutout is for my friend Mike Stelzner.
Mike runs the Social Media Marketing World Conference coming up in March, which I highly
recommend.
I will be there.
He also, of course, runs the Social Media Examiner blog and Social Media Podcast.
Great guy.
You should definitely be following Mike Stelzner in social media, if you're not already.
As always, this show, the Jay Today show, is brought to you by Sprout Social, a social
media marketing platform that I use for my own social media.
And it's brought to you by Candidio, who help me make these videos.
I just upload them on my iPhone, live from Milwaukee in this case, and Candidio does
the rest.
Fast, easy, affordable, that's Candidio.
They can help you too.
Thanks so much.
Until tomorrow, this is Jay Baer.
This has been Jay Today.
Thanks.