📡 How do you exceed expectations?!
Welcome the first Pulse of February 2019!
First, let me thank every one of you who read Pulse every week. Plus, a special thank you to the ones who forward it to other in a sharing-is-caring-but-not-in-a-spammy-way - you’re the best!
Now, let dive in and enjoy.
- Ben
PS. hit ‘reply’ and keep the feedbacks coming! 😁
PPS. I caved and joined TikTok - so, you can join me in my journey here. And read a beginners guide about TikTok from TheNextWeb here!
🧠 Insights
Expectations & Efforts - Credit: Robert Baker on Unsplash
Relentlessly lowering expectations
We always compare performance on a relative basis. “Well, it’s better than it was yesterday…”
Toddlers, for example, seem like geniuses compared to the babies they used to be.
Some people around us have embraced a strategy of always lowering expectations so that their mediocre effort is seen as acceptable. Over time, we embrace the pretty good memo or the decent leadership moment, because it’s so much better than we feared.
And some? Some relentlessly raise expectations, establishing a standard that it’s hard to imagine exceeding. And then they do.
If you’ve been cornered into following, working with or serving someone in the first group, an intervention can be rewarding. For you and for the person trapped in this downward cycle.
Raising our expectations is a fine way to raise performance as well.
from Seth Godin’s Blog.
📊 Statistics
Facebook's User Growth in Different Regions - Credit: Statista
Facebook’s User Growth Stalls Where It Hurts
Considering its size, it’s not a surprise that Facebook’s user growth has been slowing down recently. After all, the social network has more than 2.3 billion (!) monthly active users while the International Telecommunications Union puts the number of global internet users at around 3.9 billion.
What hurts the company though, is the fact that the regions most affected by the slowdown are the ones where Facebook generates the lion’s share of its revenue. Over the past three months, the social network has added just 2 million users in North America & 5 million users across Europe, which is where it generated 50% & 25% of its total revenue in the past quarter, respectively.
Read more on Statista.
TV Viewing Remains a Social Activity - Credit: GfK
The Social Side of TVideo Viewing
As internet-connected devices proliferate and streaming services grow in popularity, it’s easy to assume that TV viewing has become an individual pastime. But the reality is that just about half (48%) of TV or video total viewing time in the US is still done in groups – and this may even be growing as a social activity.
Infographic from GfK via MarketingCharts.
Apple's Q1 Revenue in 2018 & 2019 - Credit: Statista
iPhone Weakness Overshadows Plenty of Positives
When Apple released its earnings report for the holiday quarter on Tuesday after market close, there were few real surprises. After all, the company had already warned shareholders that holiday sales hadn’t been as good as previously expected. And while that was in fact the case – overall sales declined by 4.5 percent compared to the same period of last year – there were still plenty of positives to take away from Apple’s latest results.
Read more on Statista.
📱 Tools & Apps
Leave Me Alone: Easily unsubscribe from spam emails 💌 (3-day Free trial - Then use coupon PH_HATES_SPAM for 20% of your first scan!)
🎧 Audio Stimulation
The Chipmunks: Ross Bagdasarian Jr. & Janice Karman
Years after his father created a hit singing group of anthropomorphic rodents called The Chipmunks, Ross Bagdasarian Jr. made it his mission to revive his dad’s beloved characters. Over the last 40 years, Ross Jr. and his wife Janice have built The Chipmunks into a billion dollar media franchise – run out of their home in Santa Barbara, California.
🎮 Fun Stuff
Can you relate? - Credit: leleoz
This is not goodbye...
this is ‘see you next week’ 😁
Ciao