Top 3 Biggest Expenses of Any Endeavor is Going Down

The economy, the press and the paradox

from *Seth's* Blog by Seth Godin

Mark's Note: Seth is one of the best critical thinking, thought provoking writers on the planet. This is not rose colored glasses writing from the ivory tower. He has and is in the trenches everyday like you and me. You can read the entire post by clicking above but the bold sentence really hit home for me.

"I believe that we're on the verge of some exponential increases in productivity. Productivity in marketing as the waste of reaching the masses goes away. Productivity in energy as we figure out how to make a renewable process that gives us incremental units of power for free (think about the impact of that for a moment) and productivity in group work and management as we allow the network to do more than let us watch stupid YouTube videos at work. The three biggest expenses of most endeavors (the energy to make it, the people who create it and the marketing that spreads the idea) are about to be overhauled.

What a tragedy it will be if we let defensive thinking hold us back."

P.S. If you have not gotten your copy of Seth's latest book Tribes
go over to Amazon.com grab a copy now. I have read it twice.

Top 2 Choices by a Marketer or Leader by Seth Godin

Seth is an excellent writer, his daily blog posts seem to have the pulse of what is happening with consumers, marketing, the internet. Click on his name for the full blog post or click on the link here for Seth's latest book Tribes. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

As a marketer or a leader, you have two choices by Seth Godin:

The first is to realize that people will never ever be satisfied with you (ouch), they'll even whine when you give away something for free. Embrace the whining and realize that this attitude gives you an opportunity to answer the question with, "no! Wait, there's more!"

The second is to understand that a hug and a smile from a true friend is it. Along the way, marketers of stuff have tried to offer that stuff as a replacement to the thing that children/consumers/employees/customers/spouses really seek, which is connection and meaning and belonging and love.

Top 6 Reasons Why We Crave Connection on Social Media

Social media, in fact, is a basic human need,
revealed digitally online.
by Seth Godin

We want to:

To be connected,

To make a difference,

To matter,

To be missed,

To belong, and

Yes, we want to be led.

Read more of Seth Godin's latest book Tribes.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us at Amazon.com

More Reviews low tech to high tech Simply Reviews.

Only in Bowling is Perfect Possible

From Seth Godin....I Just Read This....

Only in Bowling is perfect possible....

"what do you do when things don't go exactly the way you planned a month ago?" And it turns out that if your bias is to always make it right, to use grace and flair to overdeliver at every turn, you've just discovered the single most important secret of marketing. Because when you amaze and delight, people talk about you.

Open Table powers through a Dip

Open Table powers through a Dip...I just talked about Seth's Book in my last post...I wanted to review his The Dip blog and just read this jewel about what working thru "The Dip" Means.

Open Table is an online reservations service. It's free to use and the restaurant pays a dollar per diner. The company has raised more than 20 million dollars to date. (original Times story).

During the company's first three years, they booked a million diners (in total). Now, they book two million every single month. Five years ago, they had 1,000 restaurants to choose from, now they have 7,000.

That's what it looks like when you get through the Dip. They're a superstar, the only choice.

How did they know it was a Dip and not a dead end? Because they were selling to an entire market, not just one restaurant (Chez Panisse still isn't a customer). By measuring incremental progress, they could see that the corner was just ahead.

(And a Dip within a Dip--one happy client is Norma's, a hyped breakfast restaurant in NY. Norma's does huge business via Open Table, largely because they come up on top of the breakfast 'bestseller' list. Like most things that get through the Dip, they're popular because they're popular.)

Is effort a myth?

This is an excerpt from Seth Godin's Blog... You may click on the title of this post to read the entire article.

With that forewarning, here's a bootstrapper's/marketer's/entrepreneur's/fast-rising executive's effort diet. Go through the list and decide whether or not it's worth it. Or make up your own diet. Effort is a choice, at least make it on purpose:

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of 'spare time' from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.

2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:

• Exercise for thirty minutes.
• Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines, journals, business books, blogs, etc.)
• Send three thank you notes.
• Learn new digital techniques (spreadsheet macros, Firefox shortcuts, productivity tools, graphic design, html coding)
• Volunteer.
• Blog for five minutes about something you learned.
• Give a speech once a month about something you don't currently know a lot about.

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.

4. Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly.

If you somehow pulled this off, then six months from now, you would be the fittest, best rested, most intelligent, best funded and motivated person in your office or your field. You would know how to do things other people don't, you'd have a wider network and you'd be more focused.

I just finished Seth's Book The Dip. It is short and a must read...Do you know when to quit. (You buy it on Amazon for less then $10.)

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit It's a mind grenade, a little bit of insight that will help you see what's causing your organization (or you) to get stuck.

Recession? What Recession?

We refuse to participate in this recession....This is a quote from Seth Godin's Blog.

"Inc. magazine reports that a huge percentage of companies in this year's Inc. 500 were founded within months of 9/11. Talk about uncertain times.

But uncertain times, frozen liquidity, political change and poor astrological forecasts (not to mention chicken entrails) all lead to less competition, more available talent and a do-or-die attitude that causes real change to happen."

Could not agree more....