What Would Dad Say » Seth Godin

Buy or Borrow?

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:05:40 +0000

Today’s Seth Godin was particularly noteworthy for lots of reasons. When Mr. Godin speaks about this issue, unlike Suzie “The Harpie” Orman, he has a different way of saying it that makes it more relevant. Nicely done, Seth. BTW, Seth Godin’s guest post Don’t Even Try to Get a Job! done for WWDS is still one of the more popular posts. ’magine that. Here’s the first few paragraphs, but make the jump.

Here’s a simple MBA lesson: borrow money to buy things that go up in value. Borrow money if it improves your productivity and makes you more money. Leverage multiplies the power of your business because with leverage, every dollar you make in profit is multiplied.

That’s very different from the consumer version of this lesson: borrow money to buy things that go down in value. This is wrongheaded, short-term and irrational.

A few decades ago, mass marketers had a problem: American consumers had bought all they could buy. It was hard to grow because dispensable income was spoken for. The only way to grow was to steal market share, and that’s difficult. Enter consumer debt.

Why fight for a bigger piece of pie when you can make the whole pie bigger, the marketers think. Charge it, they say. Put it on your card. Pay now, why not, it’s like it’s free, because you don’t have to repay it until later. Why buy a Honda for cash when you can buy a Lexus with credit?

Seth Godin’s “Frustration Decade” and Me.

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:43:18 +0000

Seth Godin’s first entry for 2010 is a wake up call for everyone who lives an engaged life. He sees two major trends happening in this new decade. In a strange way, I find this piece wildly motivational. I am wondering if you do as well?

Why do think this motivates me? (Here are the key parts to his piece, found here.)

Change: The infrastructure of massive connection is now real. People around the world have cell phones. The first internet generation is old enough to spend money, go to work and build companies. Industries are being built every day (and old ones are fading). The revolution is in full swing, and an entire generation is eager to change everything because of it. Hint: it won’t look like the last one with a few bells and whistles added.

Frustration: Baby boomers are getting old. Dreams are fading, and so is health. Boomers love to whine and we love to imagine that we’ll live forever and accomplish everything. This is the decade that reality kicks in. And, to top it off, savings are thin and resource availability isn’t what it used to be. A lot of people ate their emergency rations during the last decade. Look for this frustration to be acted out in public, and often.

Party Crashers–If I Had Only Known How Easy It Was To Get In, I’d a Been There.

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:25:41 +0000

I hear some of the folks in Washington were talking about creating jobs and it just made me cringe. Obviously, out here in the private sector one does not “create” a job. We create businesses that solve problems. Some of those businesses require people to run them, service accounts, and build stuff. While there are businesses that don’t require many workers, that’s still OK, because the person who figured out how to do more with fewer employees goes out and buys a new flat screen TV, new garage doors, and upgrades the furnace. Since I wasn’t invited to the White House jobs summit, I thought I would mail in a few of my suggestions:

1. Create an advisory Cabinet on jobs–er, business creation. Get Mark Cuban, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Scott Adams and Seth Godin as members. Get them to commit to a month-long “Entrepreneur Tour” (move over Britney), during which they would give free but meaty seminars about how they made it and how you can too. Book the megadome because people would come out in droves. Make a movie out of it. And, make members of Congress attend two of these events. Maybe something will stick. All eighth graders get extra credit.

2. Give $100,000 to every proven entrepreneur. Qualification: Must have built at least one successful business before. Directive: Go build another one.

3. Support small businesses as much as you support the unemployed. Maybe then the unemployed could become the employed.

4. Want entrepreneurs to create some new businesses? We need to know the rules. What’s the impact of this cap-and-trade deal? We are waiting to find out. What’s the fallout from the banking crisis? We will hold off on seeking new loans until that gets sorted out. And healthcare reform? Will I be able to run my new business and afford the new requirements? I am waiting.

5. New business tax plan. If you start a business in the next year, there will be no taxes when you sell it. Zero capital gains tax. None. Zero. Same deal if you invest in one. But you have to hold it for two years.

6. Provide incentives for neighborhood groups and angel networks to offer funds for startup businesses. These are the people now funding raw startups, since most venture capital firms don’t invest in new ideas any longer. (Wal-Mart should be guilted into matching 20 percent of every dollar raised this way. After all, they single handedly destroyed most of small-town retail environments.)

7. Every chief executive who comes before Congress to request help in any manner should be fired immediately. This might end the race to the money spigot.

8. Ask Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Bill O’Reilly to attend a three-day seminar on “How to Improve Your Manners.” They are setting an ugly tone.

9. Generally speaking, instead of rules, regulations, and restrictions–think about incentives.

10. Don’t demonize business. Sure, throw the book at Madoff, but celebrate the people who have made it work fairly, honestly, humbly, and unselfishly. Too many young people grow up hearing only bad things about businesses and the people who run them.

11. Elevate the national discourse. Given how low it’s fallen, we need someone besides Jon Stewart to really embarrass some people. One of the most noted journalists of our time, Barbara Walters, was even discussing her vibrator on THE VIEW. Where is Will Rogers when you need him?

I am sure you have some ideas too. We’d all like to hear them.

BTW, there are some real jobs over at LINKUP.com, the only job search engine that grabs jobs from company websites.

Brett Favre, Nick Corcodilos and Seth Godin: Connect the Dots

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:33:54 +0000

You most likely saw the last minute or so of the Minnesota Vikings-San Francisco 49′ers game. You know, the one where Brett Favre threw a touchdown pass with two seconds left. Two seconds. It. Was. Amazing.

I used this game, and mostly the heroics of Brett Favre to write a blog post for US NEWS called “Lessons from Brett Favre.” I was contemplating calling it WHY YOU SHOULD HIRE OLD GUYS, but thought better of it. You can see the Five Lessons by reading here.

Luckily, Nick Corcodilos must be eating the same cheerios because his post today in his readers’ forum is a request to give better answers to the more experienced among us who find themselves unemployable or, at least, un-hireable. Timely.

I also want to re-direct you to Seth Godin’s guest post here on WWDS some time back which he called “Don’t Try to Get a Job.”

There is a connection in there, don’t you think?

Math, Schmath

admin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 11:32:46 +0000

JUST when I was thinking a similar thing, the Seth Godin goes ahead and runs this post. I really must get to the internet faster.

By Seth Godin, in his blog, 8/22/09

Simple quiz for smart marketers:

Let’s say your goal is to reduce gasoline consumption.

And let’s say there are only two kinds of cars in the world. Half of them are Suburbans that get 10 miles to the gallon and half are Priuses that get 50.

If we assume that all the cars drive the same number of miles, which would be a better investment:

Get new tires for all the Suburbans and increase their mileage a bit to 13 miles per gallon.

Replace all the Priuses and rewire them to get 100 miles per gallon (doubling their average!)

Trick question aside, the answer is the first one. (In fact, it’s more than twice as good a move).

We’re not wired for arithmetic. It confuses us, stresses us out and more often than not, is used to deceive.

How To Work With People Who Are Better Than You

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:59:28 +0000

Seth Godin writes today about a common problem (Clean Sheet of Paper) facing creative types, business leaders, consultants and project managers. He says there are two ways, generally, to assign and manage projects. The first is to use your experience to select the best possible partner and then, with amazing discipline step back, and allow the talent to create an awesome result. The other approach is to use your experience to drive your team or self to a more clearly defined sought-after result, before assigning the project. Both can work. And give you winning results.

Just to add a bit to the conversation….I have had more success with the first approach, particularly if you want to achieve breakthrough results. Your efforts are really relegated to finding the right person or team for your project and then on selling them that their efforts will be useful and more to the point, used. In short, true talent in this area is very selective on their projects or on how they spend their time. Many come to them for solutions, for ideas, for work…and they understand that they hold the power in the relationship. Your task lies in selling them on “Why you?” Why should they invest their time, energy in you?

Here are some approaches to try with this group. Let me define this group for you….it is the hottest social media agency in town, the best strategic planning group, the best graphic artist in the state, or the genius programmer. These are the people who demand fees far out of your budget, they expect success and have the results to show for it. As someone once said to me long ago, “They have their s&#^ together and they can carry it too.” You know the type.

Some approaches:

1. They love new. Convince them that your blank piece of paper, with only the title on it, represents a clear big idea. You need to sell them on the story you have created for this work. It is all about the story. They love stories.

2. Contrary to what Seth said, you don’t have to take their work as is. They love collaboration by equal creative energy types. Show passion in what you want, the market you serve, and they will listen and adapt. They will run over less qualified and muddy thinkers. This is not the time to assign your B-team for ‘seasoning.’

3. Don’t give inane feedback. “I like the house drawing, but could you just add a second story?” makes them cringe.

4. Your first words should always be: THIS IS AMAZING. Always. THIS IS AMAZING. Just like the story, this must be said in a very convincing manner, so practice it so you say it in a convincing manner. Any add on comments can be made after this…and will be received with much, much greater willingness to accept your ideas.

Seth Speaks

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:58:25 +0000

From Seth Godin’s blog today:

Three things you need if you want more customers

If you want to grow, you need new customers. And if you want new customers, you need three things:

1. A group of possible customers you can identify and reach.
2. A group with a problem they want to solve using your solution.
3. A group with the desire and ability to spend money to solve that problem.

You’d be amazed at how often new businesses or new ventures have none of these. The first one is critical, because if you don’t have permission, or knowledge, or word of mouth, you’re invisible.

The Zune didn’t have #2.

A service aimed at creating videos for bestselling authors doesn’t have #1.

And a counseling service helping people cut back on Big Mac consumption doesn’t have #3.

+++++++++++++++++

I want to add a bit more to Number 2, just for added clarity, if I can be so un-humble in thinking I can add anything to Seth’s posts.

The ONLY reason someone buys anything is that they are suffering some kind of pain in their current situation. This does not mean that they are sitting around thinking “Boy, my current MP-3 player hurts my ears, I must need Zune.” Great advertising and marketing can help organizations create this pain in their prospects. That, and great sales people who are adept at asking great questions. “Pain” can be something as simple as not being in a group or community of certain users,….or something that can be developed with good questions by the sales rep that ends with something like, “Now that you mention it, I NEED that ….

In other words, a good sales rep can develop a latent pain issue so that the prospect now feels some urgency in finding a solution. The test of a good sales person is his ability to discover the prospect’s latent pain, and through questioning, increase its importance.

Most folks think selling is telling, when it’s really about listening. And it is not about ‘selling,’ it’s just helping people buy.

This last point may be obvious, but needs to be pointed out, the best hands-down sources of new business are current customers. They are up to 8 times easier to sell than developing new ones.

Hitchhiking on Seth and Sully

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:15:50 +0000

Random catch up today.

1. Did you read my man Seth Godin’s post today, called Grave New World? The first line belongs in the New Bartlett’s.

Seth wrote, “Creativity loves a problem but it hates a lousy audience.” Priceless.

It’s easy being a lousy audience to creative ideas, harder to be a great one. I took off on this thought and gave some ideas on how to be a better audience over at US NEWS and WORLD REPORT today.

2. Follow up on Sully, the heroic but muzzled US AIR pilot, who still hasn’t talked to the media:
First, did you see Sully and his crew at the Super Bowl? Maybe I am wrong, I’m thinking now that interest is building and not waning for Sully. I had thought that the Pilot’s Union had done the country a disservice by not allowing him to tell his story to the media. I hope it builds even more after the upcoming 60 Minutes Interview, with Capt Sully and his crew.

Here’s a new slant on the Sully story. Donna Hill from the National Federation of the Blind sent me a nice note after she read my post on Sully.

Turns out, that Sully and his family have been big supporters of several organizations including raising guide dogs for the blind. This is a huge commitment, and my hat is off to the entire Sully family. Seriously, this guy is like squeaky clean, what a role model! Makes me proud to sorta kinda know him.

Sad note: Did you know that PETA has been trying to discredit guide dog programs and people like the Sullenbergers who volunteer to help and the blind people who benefit from their generosity? What, did we run out little brown birds and green unnamed lizards?

What Seth Just Said

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:49:20 +0000

Ed. note: Seth Godin writes the best marketing blog in the world. Daily, he simply nails it. If you are like me, when I read his stuff, I find myself nodding my head and saying, ‘Yep, what Seth just said.” I thought it would be a good exercise to take his subject and expound on it, myself. I certainly acknowledge it is much,much easier to do what I am doing than in coming up with the original issue. Mine is under his, and you can leave a comment about his or mine, at the very end.

In the mood by Seth Godin, 1/12/09

Songs about romance don’t tell you how to make out, they merely encourage it. It’s not the data that people seek, it’s the mood.

If all we needed to do great work was information, our problems would be over. The internet is the greatest repository anyone could imagine… if you want to know how to do something, the Net will show you how. Anything.

The how, of course, is not important. Books and songs and movies that have an impact work because they motivate us to take action, not because they show us exactly what to do.

Did you not have enough information or expertise to start a successful business during the last boom? Or the boom before that? Are you so ill-informed that you are unable to make a profitable sales call, unable to answer the phone, unable to persuade someone to join your cause? That’s unlikely.

We don’t have a knowledge shortage. Far from it.

I get very annoyed at pundits who criticize a book for not having enough proof, not enough data, not enough rigorous case studies. I am disappointed at people who hesitate to start something important because they’re just waiting to learn enough or know enough or to figure out the answer.

It’s like the annoying kid at the magic show shouting, “I know how you did that trick!” Of course you do.

The question isn’t, “how do you do the trick?” The question is, “do you feel like doing the work, taking the risk, making a stand and getting it done?” If you don’t know how to do the trick, go look it up. Get a tutor. Figure it out. That’s the easy part.

You already know how to deliver excellent service that blows people away. You just don’t feel like it. Your organization has the resources to buy that machine or enter that market or change that policy. They’re just not in the mood.

If I accomplish anything on a good day, it’s helping you change attitudes. I’m working hard at getting you in the mood to do the things you already know how to do. I think that’s what your boss/the market wants you to do as well.

Me too, Seth, me too.

Let’s apply what Seth just said to how some of the newly unemployed are going about their job search today. Admittedly, this is new territory for those most recently laid off. Usually, these are the people on the inside looking out wondering what those people did to lose their job. Now they are on the outside and it pretty much sucks. Until they felt the direct impact of this economic tsunami, they thought the unemployed did something wrong, “When the teacher said listen up, I did, and they didn’t.” Now they realize that was not only not true, but callous.

They don’t know how to do “job searching.” Like Seth says, they can read the books. Good grief, have you walked the career section in the bookstore lately? Plenty of books about HOW, there.

Most, if not all, tell you exactly what to do to find your next job. Not one of the books says what the latest stats do: You can find your next job by working at it only 30 minutes per day.

You can’t, no more than Tiger can rehab his knee or practice his chip shot for 30 minutes. Shoot, I bet Michael Jordan plays BB more than that per day. Still. And they are pros. Unless you happen to be a professional job seeker, I am here just trying to do a little to get you more motivated, more excited, and more willing to put the work in to find a job you dig.

The books are there which is good because you do need the HOW TO. What is missing is the WANT TO part. That be you.

What Seth Just Said

admin — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:11:12 +0000

Ed. Note: Seth Godin is a marketing guru and well-known author who writes the most popular marketing blog in the world. I read his blog nearly every day and nearly always find myself saying “What Seth just said.” Still, from time to time, I might have an added thought or comment to add. So, I am doing it here. BTW, Seth does not allow comments on his blog, so feel free to make a comment about his original post or even on my follow up. And I acknowledge that coming up with the original idea is much harder than just commenting on it.

How to send a personal email

by Seth Godin, 1/11/09

Here are some easy to follow tips that will help you avoid being seen as a spammer, or having your emails trashed or ignored. The thing is this: email reduces friction. Greedy, lazy organizations have embraced this and tried to figure out how to blast as many emails as they can as cheaply as they can, relying on the law of large numbers. The real law of large numbers is, “using large numbers is against the law.”

I want you to add friction back in. If you want to be seen as being personal, the best strategy is to be personal, which is slow and expensive.

Don’t send the same email to large numbers of people.

If you have more than a few people to contact, you’ll be tempted to copy and paste or mail merge. Don’t. You’ll get caught. It shows. If it’s important enough for someone to read, it’s important enough for you to rewrite.

Careful with the salutation. Don’t write, “Dear Claudia,” if you don’t usually write “Dear” at the beginning of all your emails.

Don’t mush the salutation together with the rest of the note. If I had a dollar for every email that started, “Joe, When experts come together…” That’s not personal. That’s lazy merging. See rule 1.

Don’t send HTML or pictures. Personal email doesn’t, why are you?

Don’t talk like a press release. Talk like a person. A person is reading this, so why are you talking like that?

Be short. The purpose of an email is not to sell the person on anything other than writing back. If you don’t have a personal, interesting way to start a conversation, don’t write.

Don’t send an email only when you really need something. That’s not personal, that’s selfish.

Do you have a sig with a phone number in it? Your phone number? If you don’t trust me enough to give me your real phone number, I don’t trust you enough to read your mail.

Don’t mark your email urgent. Urgent to you is not urgent to me.

Don’t lie in your subject line, and don’t be cute. You’re not clever enough to be cute. Just be honest.

Following up on an impersonal spam email is twice as dumb as sending the first one. Invest the time to do it right the first time

Anticipated, personal and relevant permission mail will always dramatically outperform greedy short-term spam. I promise.

Just because you have someone’s email address doesn’t mean you have the right to email them.

What GL Just Said About What Seth Just Said

Good list, Seth…but you left off the last six tips.

Seth and GL’s Twenty Tips on How to Send Personal Email

Seth’s 1-14, see above or here.

15. If someone takes the time to send you an email, respond right away, even if it is with a short note saying “got it, more later.” Not responding is like being greeted in the elevator with a “hello” and not saying “Hi” back.

16. Brighten their day, whenever possible. Compliment them, say you appreciate them. MIght be hokey-sounding, but it works…and it should, because it is exactly what we all need in this age of ‘social media.’

17. Don’t use your sig box on every email. It’s like giving your business card to your friend after going over to his house to shoot hoops.

18. Be different. On Elvis’s birthday a few days back, I sent out a few emails thanking some bloggers for reviewing DIG YOUR JOB, with a simple “thankyouverymuch, passthepeanutbutter (Elvis Impersonation).” I have noticed that when I amuse myself with things like this, my writing is more ‘normal’ and real.

19. Summarize the attachments or files. I like getting attachments of interesting, relevant articles from my friends. It is even better when they take the time to summarize it first, or maybe cut and paste the first paragraph.

20. Lastly, don’t only send personal emails. Call.