Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 234
October 12, 2014
Loving Your Boss
Everyone hates their boss... or do they?
This isn't Apple. This isn't Facebook. This isn't Google. This isn't Disney. Think about the vast majority of the jobs that everyone has. It's not glamorous work. It's hard work. Long hours. Tough clients. Most businesses open early to prepare for the day's business and close long after the last customer has left. Most businesses are a part of local community. Now, as nice of a boss as as most of us have, they are still the person at the top. Loved? Respected? Appreciated? Hopefully. But still, employees are always wanting better hours, more staff in place, better accommodations, more money and the like. We all have a seen a myriad of ridiculous stories about employees that would make all of us shake our collective heads. We probably have similar stories about bosses, and how they can often come off like Scrooge. This isn't (usually) the staff against the boss. It is - for the most part - how most people work. They go to work and they hate their job/boss. It's like some weird kind of badge of honor. Not because their boss is a bad individual, but simply because they are the boss. Not everyone lives being resentful, but it's common - for many, many people - to feel like they know better than the boss, or that the boss is out of touch with reality.
How to go to work.
I never left any work feeling like that - for any of my bosses (even the ones that let me go). Even when I held sucky minimum wage jobs. And, I had many of those. I packaged make-up in a warehouse. I served frozen yogurt. I worked the cash at a newsstand. I delivered newspapers. And there are plenty more. I worked for my share of miserable bosses who were transparent about their lack of respect for their employees. Not fun. Still, I never got mad at the boss. It was my fault. I took the blame. Why? This may be a first world problem, but I chose to work for this individual. I went into each and every position doing my own due diligence. After accepting the position, I did so knowing - full well - what the salary, expectations and hours would be. On top of that, I was also able to recognize (from a very early age), that the beginning is always the honeymoon period, and that things could very well deteriorate quickly over time. Would I be ok with that? Before accepting the job, I had to accept that the "rules" will always change. Was having the job better than not having any job? Was having the job worth dealing with people who could very well get under my skin?
It's not always that easy.
People need to make rent. They need to pay their bills. They need to take care of their family. Sometimes, we can't make the best of decisions, because we're not in the best of positions. This also happens more often than most of us would like. Still, even if you're trapped in a job that isn't helping you to achieve your dreams, don't blame your boss. They're in their own situation... you're in your own situation. What are you going to do about your own future?
Being a great boss.
I've had many great bosses. But, it's what most people don't see. These people - the good ones - are always watching the budget. Did every employee truly understand the thin margins that the business was operating under and how the slightest of change could force the business to lay people off? Who knows? It's still shocking - and somewhat disheartening - to see how the vast majority of our population just falls into these traditional ideologies of "stick it to the boss." It's fair to say that there are bad bosses... and bad employees. It's fair to say that there are great bosses and great employees. Does everyone always love the boss? Who knows? It just seems easy... and sometimes cheap... to take it out on the boss. Beyond the old chestnut that there are three sides to every story, I'm often very self-reflective on why I chose to be in specific work situations, instead of how I was perceiving someone else (with more power than me). Being a great boss is not easy. Being a great employee can be ever harder.
Whether you're a boss or an employee, it's always important to both walk a mile in someone else's shoes and not always lay the blame with others.
Tags:
apple
community
disney
facebook
google
job
local business
management
minimum wage
miserable bosses
obituary
professional development
salary
vocation
work








Advertising Week With Joseph Jaffe
Episode #431 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
This is also episode #29.20 of Across The Sound. Joseph Jaffe is widely regarded as one of the top marketing bloggers (Jaffe Juice) and podcasters (both Jaffe Juice in audio and Jaffe Juice TV in video). He is the author of four excellent books (Life After The 30-Second Spot, Join The Conversation, Flip The Funnel Z.E.R.O.) and his latest business venture is, Evol8tion. A long-time friend (and one of the main inspirations behind the Six Pixels of Separation blog and podcast), we've decided to hold semi-regular conversations, debates and back-and-forths that will dive a little deeper into the digital marketing and advertising landscape. This is our 29th conversation (or, as I like to affectionately call it, Across The Sound 29.20). In this episode, we discuss Jerry Seinfeld's funny/sad speech at the Clio awards, advertising week and why marketers need to look at advertising in a new light. Enjoy the conversation...
You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #431.
Tags:
advertising podcast
advertising week
blog
blogging
brand
business book
business podcast
clio awards
david usher
digital marketing
evolution
facebook
flip the funnel
google
itunes
jaffe juice
jaffe juice tv
jerry seinfeld
join the conversation
joseph jaffe
life after the 30 second spot
marketing blog
marketing podcast
twitter
zero








October 11, 2014
What Disney Can (Still) Teach You About Getting The Best Out Of People
Disney is the most wonderful place on earth, right? Or, is it Google's office? Maybe Facebook's new campus?
To this day, when we think of corporate culture, it's hard not to think of Disney. The stories of how Walt Disney and his team built this fascinating company staggers across volumes of business books, documentaries and more. Doug Lipp was a foundational part of how Disney's culture evolved. Doug started his career at Disney in 1981. He quickly nabbed a leadership role in the prestigious Disney University. From there, he was instrumental in transplanting the Disney culture into Tokyo Disneyland. After his stint in in Tokyo, Lipp returned to Disney headquarters to lead their corporate training initiatives. There are few people who understand customer service, change management and what it takes to nurture the leaders of tomorrow like, Lipp. In this recently published talk at Google, Lipp discusses the content of his latest book, Disney U - How Disney University Develops the World's Most Engaged, Loyal, and Customer-Centric Employees. It's a great forty-five minute presentation.
How to build your culture by design with Doug Lipp, author of Disney U...
Tags:
business book
change management
content
corporate culture
corporate training
customer service
disney
disney culture
disney u
disney university
documentary
doug lipp
facebook
facebook campus
google
googleplex
leadership
talks at google
tokyo disneyland
walt disney








The Five Business Books That Permanently Changed My Life
We buy a lot of books. Many of them don't get read. Sadly.
I'm just as guilty as the next person of picking up the latest and greatest business book, with every intention of devouring every page. I fail at this with a spectacular flair. Over time, I've become the prototypical "get off my lawn" grumpy old man with business books that don't grab the reader from the get-go, or the ones that regurgitate the same brand stories. It's easy to be dismissive of the business book genre. Still over time - as more and more content gets created and shared online - there is something magical about spending a significant amount of time with a book and, actually learning from it. As I look across at the bookshelves that line my office and home studio, there are only a handful that I believe have fundamentally shaped the way that I think about business and marketing.
The Five Business Books That Permanently Changed My Life:
The Cluetrain Manifesto - The End of Business As Usual . Written by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger. This is the book that was able to verbalize everything that I was feeling (during the later eighties and onwards) about how technology - but more importantly, the Internet - was going to change everything about marketing, communications, media and advertising. When we talk about businesses becoming more human, The Cluetrain Manifesto, was truly able to create a vision for how brands and human beings would become ever-closely connected. To this day, you can read this book and still see how much further we will still go. Listen to my conversation with David Weinberger right here.
Made To Stick - Why Some Ideas Survive And Other Dies . Written by Chip and Dan Heath (yes, they're brothers). We talk a lot about what makes a video on YouTube go viral or how a brand can get more consumers to like them on Facebook. What we're really asking is this: how do we get people to care about us? This is a book that many people read (or bought and claimed to read), but few took the time to go back to (for shame). Like a textbook. Because Made To Stick answers the question above. It's one of the best books ever written on how to create a compelling story. A story that people will actually care about. If you want people to care, you have to tell them great stories. This is the seminal book on how a great story gets created, told and sold.
Permission Marketing - Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers . Written by Seth Godin. The truth is that Seth has written so many important books, that this list could be stacked with just a handful from his immensely rich business book catalog. I chose Permission Marketing, because what Seth asks of us business leaders in the book is still as relevant today, as it was when he first published this book in 1999. Here's what Seth wrote about permission marketing on his blog: "Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them. It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention." Yes, this book calls for the end of pounding consumers with spammy messages. Listen to my conversation with Seth Godin right here.
Re-Imagine! - Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age . Written by Tom Peters. While most people will think of In Search Of Excellence when they think of Tom Peters, I think of Re-Imagine! It may be a generational thing, but Tom Peters' writing is the reason that I became such a voracious business book reader/fanatic. I feel in love with his direct, snappy and funny writing while reading The Project 50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Every "Task" into a Project That Matters! But, it was Re-Imagine! that really blew my mind. The book is super visual and filled with nuggets about how to be a leader in a world that continues to evolve. It covers everything from brands and technology to people, value and context. This book is permanently placed in the upper right corner on the top shelf of my collection... this way, I can always grab it. Listen to my conversation with Tom Peters right here.
The Sales Bible - The Ultimate Sales Resource . Written by Jeffrey Gitomer. Many people turn their heads as sales books. Big mistake. Especially, when it's a book written by Jeffrey Gitomer. I would argue that The Sales Bible should really be called, The Business Bible. First, this book is written in a friendly, smart and fun way. His big lesson? Stop trying to close a sale and start trying to build a lifelong relationship with people, so that they will always want to buy from you. Jeffrey once brilliantly stated this: "All things being equal, people like to do business with those that they know like and trust... but, all things being unequal, people still like to do business with those that they know like and trust." This book is filled with sales and business lessons. More importantly, this book is filled with life lessons. Listen to my conversation with Jeffrey Gitomer right here
What are the five business books that permanently changed your life?
Tags:
advertising
book
brand
business
business book
business lessons
chip heath
christopher locke
communications
dan heath
david weinberger
doc searls
facebook
in search of excellence
internet
internet culture
jeffrey gitomer
made to stick
marketing
media
permission marketing
reader
reading
reimagine
relationships
rick levine
seth godin
storytelling
technology
the cluetrain manifesto
the project 50
the sales bible
tom peters
viral video
youtube








Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #225
Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".
Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:
Why The U.S. Chills Its Eggs And Most Of The World Doesn't - NPR . "I've always wondered about this. Turns out there are good reasons why. Also, if you live in the US, you probably shouldn't keep your eggs on the counter." (Alistair for Hugh).
You are not your browser history - Medium . "Jer Thorp has been working with a group of smart researchers and journalists on a project that lets people see how advertisers profile them. The result is a browser plug-in, which hopefully will help show how ad algorithms decide who sees what (and who's marginalized as a result.) To kick it off, Jer asked ten strangers to profile him based on his ad history." (Alistair for Mitch).
The Most Ambitious Environmental Lawsuit Ever - The New York Times Magazine . "Louisiana, oil and environmental destruction." (Hugh for Alistair).
Roughly Three Minutes of Bill Murray Singing Along to Bob Dylan - Gawker . "Sometimes bad things are good. Here is Bill Murray smoking butts and singing along with Bob Dylan. Was this the 'best' link of the week? No. Not really. But I like it." (Hugh for Mitch).
30 Self-Help Books That Permanently Changed My Life - Time . "Some people... scratch that... a lot of people seem to poo poo self-help books. I don't. I take them very seriously, so long as they are written by someone with who either has tremendous credibility or someone with something real to say. Regardless of how 'light' some of these books can be, there are often nuggets in them that roll around between my earholes and keep me thinking - or at least, reflecting - on some of the bigger things in my life that I should be paying more attention to. Here is is a list of thirty books... most of them I haven't read, but many of them have helped me... deeply." (Mitch for Alistair).
What You Need To Know About Your Second Draft - Terrible Minds . "We live in a world where we write blog posts, online articles and more with little happening in terms of the editing process. We write, we check quickly for spelling mistakes and we publish. Serious writers work with editors. They tear their words to shreds. They re-write sections (sometimes, the entire piece). Self-editing doesn't even hold a candle to working with an editor. Rarely do we see people doing a lot of self-editing. How many times have you written a blog post, stepped away from it, came back and made a second draft of your work? Here's a wonderful piece that breaks down the value in editing... and multiple drafts. It's essential reading for anyone who likes to create with words." (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.
Tags:
alistair croll
bill murray
bitcurrent
bob dylan
book a futurists manifesto
complete web monitoring
gawker
gigaom
hugh mcguire
human 20
iambik
jer thorp
lean analytics
librivox
link bait
link exchange
link sharing
managing bandwidth
media hacks
medium
npr
pressbooks
self help books
social media
solve for interesting
terrible minds
the new york times magazine
time magazine
year one labs








October 9, 2014
The True Omni-Channel Is Convergence
Convergence used to be a bad word.
In the early days of the Internet, we tossed around the word "convergence" much in the same way that we toss around the words "social media" these days. It was this "be all. End all" catchphrase to let the world know that soon, we would not have multiple media platforms. That soon, all media channels would converge via the Internet (TV would be the Internet, radio would be the Internet... you get the idea). Many massive media and telecommunications companies banked on this happening (remember that whole Time Warner AOL deal?). Some rushed in (and lost their shirts), while others sat on the sidelines and watched startups eat their lunch (slowly and over time). That word... "convergence"... died a rightful death in the nineties, and it was never to be heard from again. Convergence was akin to saying, "money pit."
The wake-up of retail.
Over the past several months, I have spent a serious (and significant) amount of time presenting to retailers throughout North America. Senior retailers from some of the world's biggest brands at events for Google and Twitter, to local merchants with unique retail specialty at retail association events. Convergence is probably the best word to describe their current situation. Internally, retailers will say that becoming omni-channel is the true imperative. I believe that omni-channel is simply an industry buzzword to define the challenge of working in silos with disparate data sets that struggle to find connection points. Don't get me wrong, the ability for a retailer to truly understand their consumers - whether they shop in-store or online - is critical (and, it's even more critical to treat these types of shopping experiences as one in the same). The bigger challenge is in understanding this new convergence... the convergence between the digital world and the physical world.
Don't separate digital and physical... they are one.
Amazon is about to open a physical store in New York City (right across from the Empire State Building). No one really knows if there will be actual products to buy, or if the store will simply be there to serve same-day delivery, pickups of online orders, returns and exchanges. It could also be a showroom for Amazon's growing line of products and services (like smartphones, Kindle devices, tablets, media players, etc...) or if it will act more like a pop-up shop for some of their more popular products. Amazon has been teasing at a physical retail operation for a long time, and it seems more real than ever before. Other online brands have gone this route as well. Warby Parker, Birchbox and more have opened up physical retail spaces to extend and expand their brand offerings. This is less about human beings feeling the need to touch and get up-close-and-personal with products, than a function of something more.
Our physical spaces have become very digital and our digital lives have very physical and real implications.
For Amazon's growth to continue, it must do a lot of extra work to understand their consumers (and, it's not just Amazon... it's all retailers). There is no doubt that functionality like consumer reviews and related items have created a treasure trove of analytics and data to help smart online retailers better understand inventory and push up the basket price (amongst many other awesome treats). Actually being able to see your consumers - in their protein forms - adds many more layers of depth to a company's data and research that can't be understated.
Is Amazon opening up a physical store just for the data?
It could well be. And, if this is part of the truth, it ushers in a very significant shift in the retail landscape. Imagine the power that this gives a brand? If the last mile for companies like Google and Twitter and Facebook to grow are to connect the billions of people who do not have connectivity, perhaps the real last mile for all retailers is to own both the physical and digital consumer in one closed-loop. It makes perfect sense. Brands like Apple and LEGO dove into the retail world to own the direct relationship with their consumers, so why would it be so crazy for brands like Amazon to do the same? It's fascinating to think that brands will now move to brick-and-mortar to maintain their digital dominance and, ultimately, for the analytics over the profits.
If this isn't a sign for true convergence - and a new perspective on winning the omni-channel - I don't know what is.
Tags:
amazon
analytics
aol
apple
birchbox
brand
brand offering
brick and mortar
consumer
consumer intelligence
consumer reviews
convergence
data
digital consumer
direct relationships
ecommerce
empire state building
facebook
google
internet
kindle
lego
local merchants
media
media channel
media company
media platform
media player
omni channel
online order
online retail
online retailer
pop up shop
radio
related items
retail
retail association
retail landscape
retail operation
retailers
same day delivery
shopping
shopping experience
showroom
silo
smartphone
social media
startup
tablet
telecommunications
television
time
time warner aol
tv
twitter
warby parker
warner
web analytics








October 7, 2014
Facebook Is Going To Follow You Everywhere With Atlas
Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.
This week we discussed:
It was Advertising Week in NYC last week and everyone was talking up Facebook and Atlas. What is this? Facebook will now help brands track consumers outside of Facebook.
Don't confuse this with related searches on YouTube and Amazon recommending books to you. This is your usage and digital persona being tracked to target advertising towards you.
Ebay owns PayPal. It was announced this week that PayPal was going to separate and become its own company. Does this make two massive companies or does this mean that PayPal was doing better than ebay?:
Not that there's a trend here, but HP is going to break their business in two as well. Separating their PC/Printer business from their other business units.
Do we have to start thinking about what might happen when Alibaba comes to North America?
Alibaba's founder, Jack Ma was fascinating on 60 Minutes.
Windows 10 is coming... yes, another operating system and there is some good buzz around it.
App of the week: Apple's Passbook.
Listen here...
Tags:
60 minutes
advertising week
alibaba
amazon
apple passbook
atlas
chom 977 fm
chom fm
ctrl alt delete
ctrl alt delete with mitch joel
digital media
ebay
facebook
facebook atlas
google
guest contributor
heather backman
hp
jack ma
montreal radio
morning show
mornings rock with terry and heather b
passbook
paypal
radio segment
radio station
social media
soundcloud
technology
terry dimonte
windows 10
youtube








October 5, 2014
The End Of Absence With Michael Harris
Episode #430 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
"Every revolution in communication technology - from papyrus to the printing press to Twitter - is as much an opportunity to be drawn away from something as it is to be drawn toward something. And yet, as we embrace a technology's gifts, we usually fail to consider what we're giving up in the process. Why would we bother to register the end of solitude, of ignorance, of lack? Why would we care than an absence had disappeared?"
This is the question that award-winning journalist at Western Living and Vancouver magazines, Michael Harris, began thinking about. If everything is always ringing, buzzing and vibrating in our pockets with some kind of alert, update or signal, are we able - as a society - to figure out what is a true signal and what is noise? Are we losing something special in a world where the is no absence because we're constantly connected to something? He wrote a book about it titled, The End Of Absence. Harris believes that we are, indeed, losing something as technology connects us more and more to information and one another. What do you think? Enjoy the conversation...
You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #430.
Tags:
advertising podcast
blog
blogging
brand
business book
business podcast
david usher
digital marketing
facebook
google
itunes
marketing podcast
michael harris
the end of absence
twitter
vancouver magazine
western living








October 3, 2014
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #224
Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".
Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:
I am Richard Preston, author of "The Hot Zone" and expert in the Ebola virus. AMA! - Reddit . "The book The Hot Zone is a chilling story of America's last Ebola outbreak. That one didn't get any people, just monkeys. But it's still a great cautionary tale, and required reading for medical students. This week, America's first confirmed case of Ebola hit Texas, so I thought I'd send along a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) by Richard Preston done a month ago. His answers are as interesting as the questions ('can it be transmitted by mosquitos?') Here's hoping the CDC is reading too." (Alistair for Hugh).
Exodus - Aeon . "My wife sent me this. She has been a Google fan for a decade, but she's finally switched her allegiance to Elon Musk with this article. It's a good read, and a sound argument that multi planetary life must be our priority. As author Ross Andersen says, 'he is always giving you new reasons to doubt him.' Here's hoping our doubts are unfounded." (Alistair for Mitch).
Beautiful LEGO 2: Dark, A New Book About The Dark Side of LEGO by Mike Doyle - Colossal . "I don't think this link needs any more explanation, does it?" (Hugh for Alistair).
Podcasts are back -- and making money - The Washington Post . "Mitch and I got to know each other in large part because of podcasting... Mitch drove me back from Kingston to Montreal, after we had both attended the Podcasts Across Borders conference (back in 2006? 2007?). We ranted for three straight hours about all of the things that we wanted the Internet to do, and a deep friendship was born. Anyway, Mitch and I both had stake in the earlyish days of podcasting: Mitch had been doing his Six Pixels podcast for a while; and LibriVox was just growing into the public domain audiobook mid-sized-ish podcasting juggernaut. Eight long years later, and podcasting is getting cool and interesting once again (largely due to the amazing stuff NPR and its offshoots has been producing). And I agree with former This American Life producer, Alex Blumberg , featured in this article about this resurgence: we need more great podcasts. Long live great stuff for our ears! Though I'll bet you the making money part is still bloody hard!" (Hugh for Mitch).
Why a leading professor of new media just banned technology use in class - The Washington Post . "I love Clay Shirky . Everything about him. How he thinks. How he writes. How he speaks. I even like his hair style ;) This is a fascinating turn of events, and it's coming from someone who knows a thing or two about technology. As someone who teaches technology, journalism and Internet culture at the college level, he has decided to ban technology in his class. It turns out that these bright, shiny and vibrating objects are always more of a distraction than we may admit. What's most interesting about this? Shirky is both admitting it... and doing something about it." (Mitch for Alistair).
Amazon's crowdsourced publishing platform will launch soon for mystery, romance and sci-fi authors - Gigaom . "If Amazon loves anything, it's disruption. Disruption of retail. Disruption of publishing and more. They're getting a lot of heat lately from many authors as the battle between them and Hachette Book Group wages on (full disclosure: both of my business books, Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete are published by Hachette). This article describes Amazon's latest publishing venture as 'somewhere between Amazon Publishing's 'traditional' imprints and self-publishing platform KDP: Authors whose books are selected get a $1,500 advance and 50 percent royalties on net ebook revenue. The contracts are for ebook and audio rights, with authors retaining print rights; initial contract terms are 5 years.' The question is, obviously, timing. Is Amazon doing this to make authors appreciate them again or is this the future of publishing as Amazon sees it? If you think about it, the answer could be both." (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.
Tags:
aeon
alex blumberg
alistair croll
ama
amazon
ask me anything
bitcurrent
book a futurists manifesto
cdc
clay shirky
colossal
complete web monitoring
elon musk
gigaom
google
hachette book group
hugh mcguire
human 20
iambik
lean analytics
lego
librivox
link bait
link exchange
link sharing
managing bandwidth
media hacks
mike doyle
npr
podcast
pressbooks
reddit
richard preston
ross anderson
social media
solve for interesting
the hot zone
the washington post
this american life
year one labs








Focus And Attention Will Kill Your Fear
A lot of what we do in marketing is fear based.
We don't change things because we're scared that they won't deliver the same results. We do this even when those older strategies are simply a game of diminishing returns. It's the reason why so many brands were so slow to understand and embrace online advertising. It happens to this day. What stops us from being scared? It's a difficult question to answer, so all I can do is offer my own, personal, opinion. First, let me be honest: I still have fear. It happens often. Frequently, It happens as I sit outside of a boardroom waiting to pitch new business. It happens when big changes are afoot at Twist Image. It happens when a client calls and isn't thrilled with something that is going on. I feel it when I stare at a blank screen. I feel it in my feet as I walk to take the stage. The difference is that I'm beginning to better understand the fear and how to make it quiet (I don't think it ever leaves... and I think that it often keeps me sharp and attentive, as well).
What works?
In short, focusing on what I need to know and understand before heading into these meetings and scenarios is what works best. You have to give these moments the attention that they need. It may seem simple enough, but the fear dissipates as my knowledge and comfort with the material increases. So, fear is killed by focusing and putting the time in to dig deep and know the content. In fact, this isn't just for something new. It's for everything. You can spend the whole day floating through Buzzfeed, Facebook and Twitter, but what you will find is that you are not diving deep. You are skimming. It doesn't matter how much you consume, it's all about the depth of the work. It's the reason that I focus a lot of my content consumption on reading books. Unlike blog posts or articles, I believe that books that are written well are designed to create a change from within for the reader. It's a tall order, but it's true. When a book (especially a business book) strikes those chords, something magical happens. We remember. We have notes. It makes us better. It changes us. When this happens, we share it. The best books don't just sit on our bookshelves. We talk about them... we pass them along.
It's a challenge.
Yes, in a world of tweets, shares, likes and following, the challenge for all of us is to create something that overcomes the superficiality of that simple and easy action lazy sharing. It's easy to share a link you read on Facebook. It's an effort to take a book and pass it on to someone that you know needs it. But, when you do pass that book along, it's also a statement of how much time and attention that you have given to it. It's something. Something more that what the digital channels provide. And yes, that kills fear, because you've put in the time to focus, to give a subject the attention and to spend time with it (and even pass it along).
Something new for you.
As I was thinking about creating content from a place of fear instead of doing it from a place of comfort (because of the focus and attention), one of my favorite people in the whole world, Seth Godin, announced his latest book. It's called What To Do When It's Yours Turn (And It's Always Your Turn). It's a different kind of book. Seth says it may even look more like a high quality magazine than a book, but it's still a book. Plus, Seth wants you to buy a few copies. Not just to line his pockets (trust me, he doesn't need the money), but because Seth wants you to spend the time and attention on this book... and then he wants you to share the ideas by passing some extra copies around (taking a cue from his classic business book, Unleashing The Ideavirus). The book won't be available in a digital format (for now), and it's on sale in it's paper format until October 8th. Like all things Seth Godin, it is bound to sell out, so act fast. I know that I did. His books never let me down, and I just can't wait to get a copy of this one to devour.
If you need more convincing or if you're struggling with fear at work, this is what Seth has to say about it...
In cased you missed it, this is a conversation that Seth and I had at the Google offices in New York City last year to launch my second book, CTRL ALT Delete:
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