Dale Carnegie might have difficulty recognizing the influencers of today. I’ve never read his book How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936 and 1981), but from what I’ve read about it – and there is plenty of commentary – it was about convincing people through trust, sympathy and sheer likeability. It – and Carnegie’s course, famously taken by Warren Buffet – is still popular among those who want to make a career out of sales.
There were many who also felt Carnegie’s approach was too shallow, even insincere, but the book remains acknowledged as the mother of all self-help titles.
I am not a big self-help book fan and I am not sure I’ve ever read one. But I do wonder about the term “influence” as it’s used today. A recent Vice article defined the term this way: “It says ‘I can make you do what I want.’”
If that’s an accurate definition, it’s something I can do without in the world of gardening.
When I started out, I was looking for information more than persuasion. What could be planted in shade? Among tree roots? In between rose bushes? In clay soil?
What perennials have the longest bloom seasons? What ground covers would spread the fastest?
I found decent answers to those questions mainly in the pages of books and from the comments of more experienced gardeners. I saw other answers in local gardens that I could tell had conditions like mine.
I don’t remember watching a single YouTube video on gardening – other than as part of conferences – over the 25 years I’ve been gardening, though I did make a couple how-tos on bulb forcing at the request of others. I do know that online videos have helped thousands resolve all kinds of home and garden – and other – dilemmas. It’s just not the way I do things.
But I am the exception. At the salon the other day, my stylist, a fellow gardener with whom I share many a bragging phone shot of blooming double hellebores or crazy coleus, was extolling the video offerings of a gardener she – and thousands of others – was following. This person was mainly touting the virtues of Proven Winners new hydrangea varieties.
My stylist was clearly making a point. Why didn’t I do videos like that? I could quit my day job and double my income.
It will not happen for oh-so-many reasons, the most prominent that I would be terrible at it.
When I recommend hydrangeas, it is usually by species, variety, hybrid, or cultivar. Not brand, though if I know of a good supplier, I might mention it. I would definitely mention a local nursery. If this information influences the person I’m talking to or anyone who reads it online, then fine. Though usually, most people I give advice to go out and do the opposite or at least something very different.
It was kind of questionable when Dale Carnegie used it and the term – at least for me – hasn’t improved.
Want to win friends and influence me? If influencers help you, that’s cool – just don’t ask me to watch their videos or follow their feeds. I’ll have to struggle along without.
Well Elizabeth, me thinks you are dating yourself. I too probably don’t have the desire or patience perhaps to wade through some of the videos that are out there but they sure do seem to resonate with the younger generation. Chalk it up to different learning styles perhaps or just an evolution of how we absorb information in this day and age. Obviously, (or it should be obvious) that a person that is promoting a certain brand is there to promote first and perhaps educate second. We in the industry know that there are multiple breeders of Hydrangeas that also have their own “influencers” that are trying get us to buy there products over their competitor’s similar (and often virtually the same) plants. I confess that I have also never read Dale’s book and only skimmed through Paco Underhill’s book and why people buy stuff. And yet, I have managed to spend a lifetime essentially in sales (owning a nursery requires a lot of different skills but ultimately you have to sell the stuff) despite not having been exposed to a vast array of “influencers”. My father was in sales and as the old saying goes: “he could sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo”.
I confess, that like you I suspect, I am too old (not that I am saying you are too old God forbid) to really jump on this “influencer’ bandwagon. No need to apologize though, it’s all good.
Steve, Rather than chalking it up to different learning styles it might well be that Elizabeth has 25 years of gardening experience while the younger generation simply don’t yet have that experience and have a greater need for information and direction. Elizabeth, as did I given that I am even longer gardening, sought her information from books while the today’s beginner gardeners seek their information online. How does the saying go… different strokes for different folks. As an aside, and referring back to Dale Carnegie’s book, as a student teacher a professor told the gathered the group that sincerity was the most essential quality a teacher should possess…and once you can fake that you’ve go it made!
I am not a fan of YouTube or Instagram, either. Besides hidden (or not so hidden) agendas, there are commercials which interrupt and flash in your eyes. Also, most presenters feel the need to perform–endless introductions, repetition and folksy hoo hah which just suck up my time. Give me words I can read anytime.
Not to mention, the bandwidth YouTube can take up! I love books, but will read websites and blogs.
Is “why winter garden” an influencer instagram site?
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/whywintergarden/
LOL. No Linus, just a hashtag. But hopefully it got people thinking about the winter garden a little more than everyone posting nicotiana flashbacks in January. 🙂 – MW
Hahaha! I’m laughing at the nicotiana flashbacks. ~~Dee
Bloggers are influencers, too, aren’t they? I know the specific term applies more to Instragram and Youtube, but writers try to influence. That’s what they do.
30+ years Garden Design professional. Middle Georgia, USA. Always organic, historic, no irrigation needed, no fertilizer needed, maximum pollinator habitat, low maintenance, shade/sun properly placed to lower HVAC bills, increase property value, etc.
About 3 years ago, designed a small landscape the client wanted to install. She phoned, said the nursery told her all the plants, ALL, were “old fashioned”. They did not have any of them.
Smelling the reason? Anyone?
They only sold, Proven Winners.
Irony never had a better definition.
My plans only use plants proving themselves across, minimum, a century.
Why?
New plants are not proven against late freezes, early freezes, 65f in the afternoon & 2f same night, and the beat goes on….
Who has time, in the garden, for “maybe” ?
More recently, have moved to historic acreage in rural USA. In addition to plants being immune to the elements, they must be DEER PROOF . Armadillo proof is a pipe dream.
Influence me? PLANTS influence me.
Caveat emptor rings ever more true. When they try to sell too hard, influencers lose my interest. However, I very much appreciate all the high quality garden media we have available to us today, so I’m willing to cope with a bit of puffery now and then, if it pays the bills for a person who brings me helpful info alongside the spiel.
So many agendas – it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. We’re still in an in-between media time where I can follow the accounts of the writers, gardeners, and designers I have always respected (and through them find others), and their IG feed is gravy to see what they’re doing in real-time. Chances are, if you’re insistent on showing me a ‘flashback’ to spring or a ‘everyone needs a pretty pic of a zinnia right now’ in Feb, I’m not in – but if you’re showing me what’s going on NOW, that can be useful. I’m a book learner too Elizabeth – we’re a rare breed methinks. – MW
Are you perhaps… trying to influence people not to learn about garden via video? Kind of silly.
Agreed @newgardener. One of the biggest wishes for our national garden communicator organization is that we attract younger people – we have to, or we’ll fade into non-existence. Yet how could they possibly feel welcomed when they read something like this? I personally love the knowledge and vitality young younger communicators bring to the table. So, what is this really? A rant against video, influencers, young gardeners, or Proven Winners (which apparently is the only brand out there). I don’t get it. Seems like just another way of saying “You kids get off my lawn!”
Have either old or new g read the post, which includes this: ” I do know that online videos have helped thousands resolve all kinds of home and garden – and other – dilemmas.” I do not insist that others feel as I do. This, like most of my posts, says a number of things. One thing I am not afraid of is to use my real name.
As an older gardener who started later (AGE 50), I have to say I love looking through Instagram gardening posts. I find them inspiring and helpful. They also let my imagination wander to areas of the world that I have yet to visit and whose climate is completely different from mine. That being said, I can understand how someone who has been gardening pre-Instagram would not feel a need to indulge.
By the way, I have been totally enjoying Marianne Wilburn’s “why winter garden” posts!
Last summer I made the long drive to visit Big Bloomers, a favorite nursery near Raleigh where (until now) you could buy old-fashioned plant cultivars, plus small pots at commensurate prices of the fancy things Tony Avent sold down the road at Plant Delights for heftier tags — and therefore not beat yourself up too badly if you couldn’t get the little gem to survive. They had signs up everywhere, “If you like the old-fashioned plants, by them now — we are not going to be propagating them any more.” They are switching to Proven Winners. Well, so much for future trips. Why should I go all that way to get plants available at the neighborhood big boxes? I will truly mourn the loss of these valuable resources! We’ll see if the Lancaster PA greenhouses also go this route…