Dublin: 01-8610700 Cork: 021-4279511
The paperback choice and my video dilemma
April 28th, 2011
Linchpin is the bestselling and (judging from my inbox) biggest impact book I’ve ever written. Given the extraordinary feedback I’ve gotten from readers, it encouraged me to figure out ways to spread the idea to more people.
To that end, the paperback comes out today. It’s four dollars cheaper, which in the scheme of things isn’t a lot, but paperbacks have proven to make a huge difference in widespread adoption (Eat, Pray, Love sold more than 1000% as many copies after they made the shift). I think a new format sends a message about sharability.
For impact, I still prefer the hardcover, [...]
Changing personas
April 27th, 2011
This isn’t easy. It’s not easy for people or for organizations.
A marketing persona is the posture or approach or attitude you bring to the market. Your strategy might be speed or generosity or petulance. Over time, we tend to adopt the ones that work for us and abandon the others.
A scrappy startup has a persona of thumbing its nose at competitors and convention. It works. They do it more. Then, one day, the startup is actually the dominant player, and there’s no one to thumb. A new persona is needed, or the company fails.
A cute kid starts out using the [...]
Shopify contest launches today
April 26th, 2011
I jumped the gun last week. As promised, here’s the updated link to the Shopify contest. The first 5,000 entrants get a free hardcover copy of Poke the Box, a chance to win their part of over $ 250,000 in prizes, support a great cause and build a store at the same time. Check it out.
Seth’s Blog
Alignment
April 25th, 2011
Long-term brands and relationships are built on alignment. Here are a few examples (“I” is the royal I, not me in particular):
A perfect relationship: I want your company to help me, and your company wants to help me. We’re both focused on helping the same person.
The Walmart relationship: I want the cheapest possible prices and Walmart wants to (actually works hard to) give me the cheapest possible prices. That’s why there’s little pushback about customer service or employee respect… the goals are aligned.
The Apple relationship: I want Apple to be cool. Apple wants to be cool. That’s why there’s little [...]
The opportunity is here
April 24th, 2011
At the same time that our economic engines are faltering, something else is happening. Like all revolutions, it happens in fits and starts, without perfection, but it’s clearly happening.
The mass market is being replaced by multiple micro markets and the long tail of choice.
Google is connecting buyers and sellers over vaster distances, more efficiently and more cheaply than ever before.
Manufacturing is more of a conceptual hurdle than a practical one.
The exchange of information creates ever more value, while commodity products are ever cheaper. It takes fewer employees to generate more value, make more noise and impact more people.
Most of all [...]
The realization is now
April 23rd, 2011
New polling out this week shows that Americans are frustrated with the world and pessimistic about the future. They’re losing patience with the economy, with their prospects, with their leaders (of both parties).
What’s actually happening is this: we’re realizing that the industrial revolution is fading. The 80 year long run that brought ever-increasing productivity (and along with it, well-paying jobs for an ever-expanding middle class) is ending.
It’s one thing to read about the changes the internet brought, it’s another to experience them. People who thought they had a valuable skill or degree have discovered that being an anonymous middleman doesn’t [...]
Improving the trains
April 22nd, 2011
While making the trains run on time is a good thing, making them run early is not.
If you define success as getting closer and closer to a mythical perfection, an agreed upon standard, it’s extremely difficult to become remarkable, particularly if the field is competitive. Can’t get rounder than round.
In general, purple cows live in fields where it’s possible to reinvent what people expect.
Seth’s Blog
Hungry or guarded
April 21st, 2011
The hungry person at the all you can eat buffet is happy to take one more item. She doesn’t spend a lot of time comparing this to that, or saying ‘no thank you’ or avoiding certain items. If it’s interesting, “sure I’ll try a little bit. I can always come back.”
The guarded person walking down the street avoids eye contact with the homeless person, doesn’t answer a request from the petition-signer and certainly doesn’t help a Boy Scout with that old lady.
And this is precisely the dichotomy every cause, every candidate and every marketer faces.
Either you’re selling to people who [...]
Do the Work is out today
April 20th, 2011
Steve Pressfield’s new book is available today.
It’s a prequel, sequel and manifesto-companion to one of the best books I have ever read, The War of Art. This new one is the one you can hand out to your co-workers and your students and even your boss. I’m thrilled that Steve entrusted this book to my new venture, the Domino Project.
Of course, subscribers to the Domino blog already knew about the new book and got it for free in digital form. In fact, it’s already a bestseller. Not too late to join in…
No matter how you get it, I hope you’ll [...]
Bringing interesting businesses online
April 19th, 2011
Today, Shopify is launching their annual new online business contest. I’m pleased that they’re making a very significant donation to the Acumen Fund to kick it off, as well as offering everyone who enters a copy of Poke the Box.
[UPDATE! I got the launch date wrong, I'm sorry. You'll have to hold your horses re entering, because the contest isn't actually live yet. I'll repost with details next week when it is. Sorry for the hassle.]
I have no idea if you should be running an online store, it’s certainly not for everyone… but I do know that the only way [...]