SAMBA Blog

Peer Pressure

Ambitious people like us can't help but compare ourselves to our peers. 

Often as these individuals experience success, we feel less successful by comparison.  And so a common human reaction (whether we realize we're doing it or not) is to slowly distance ourselves from these friends and colleagues.

Sure, consciously you may tell yourself you just "fell out of touch"...but subconsciously you may be deliberately escaping the discomfort of the harsh self-evaluation that comes with being around them.

Ironically, the need to "keep up" with our peer group is one of the strongest motivational forces in the entire universe and provides one of the greatest fuels for our own success. 

The need to "belong" and the resulting pain when we feel we don't can be a true gift...if you choose to embrace it  instead of running from it.

Generously Inclusive and Discriminatingly Exclusive

It probably takes one whole week to read the entire New York Times Sunday edition word for word. It takes me one week of regular intervals to get through the Economist Magazine and I'm not even reading everything. And I haven't even gotten to Wired, Fast Company, Forbes, etc. etc. etc.

That's one reason Digg, Guy Kawasaki's AllTop, Reddit, Drudge Report, are finding success. They aggregate and they curate. That curating element is key. You'll fail to hold our attention if you aggregate a whole bunch of junk that doesn't conform to our unique worldview.

Permission marketers need to adjust to a changing world. Take a page from the news curators' playbook. Your customers or your tribe will increasingly look to you to curate a small part of their daily lives and world.

Permission marketers of the future will be:

• highly opinionated
• early adopters
• linchpins
• actively fighting the lizard brain
• culturally aware
• social
• generously inclusive and discriminatingly exclusive

What other characteristics am I missing on this list? Please add to it.

The critical transition from salesperson to marketer

Most hungry entrepreneurs are naturally good salespeople.  Because they exude unbounded passion for their product, they're able to persuade others by their sheer enthusiasm.

After all if you tell someone your product is "The Best", with enough conviction and persistence...well, they might believe you. 

Unfortunately, this personal passion doesn't scale so well.  There are only so many hours in the day, and only so many high energy face to face interactions that one can perform.

This is the reason for marketing:  to spread those very same ideas in a way that scales, without the exhaustion and inevitable futility of trying to do it one person at a time.  But the very same passion that is so powerful in sales can lead to utter disaster in marketing.

In marketing, your message is delivered by agents that are simply not YOU.

Agents like your website.  When your website says "You're the best" It lacks the same passion and credibility and thus effectiveness.  And plus, every website says that they're the best...why should I trust yours?

Even agents like your customers.  If you're fortunate that your customers tell their friends that "You're the best", it's not clear they'll do it with the same conviction that you would and definitely not the persistence. 

Much of marketing is the counter intuitive process of divorcing ourselves from our passion for our product.  And instead, creating stories that don't require passion on behalf of marketing agents...but rather stand on their own inherent strength and uniqueness.  Laser like ideas that specifically appeal to a certain type of person (rather than everyone).

It's in this way that great ideas spread.

Can't Out-Chinese the Chinese

Seldom do we see politicians tell the truth when the truth is unpleasant or even scary. Those "8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession" are not coming back, Vice President Biden is right. They've either disappeared forever or permanently moved to much cheaper foreign locations. 

We cannot out-Chinese the Chinese. But if we're not careful, the Chinese might out-American we Americans. Even scarier, they're not the only ones working on becoming more innovative and artistic. So is much of the rest of the world.

So if we can't all go back to the factories, blue or white collar factories, what can we do? If 9 to 5 is going the way of the buggy whip, what are you going to do?

Don't take notes

In school they teach you to take notes.  Apparently studies have shown that taking notes improves your ability to recall information (makes perfect sense).

It turns out this type of memorization is really useful for the inane history tests and algebra quizzes that they give you in grammar school.

But it's not clear recall is so important when listening to the type of things we professionals encounter more often...like corporate presentations, personal development seminars, or books on tape.

No, these things aren't usually followed by tests.  They are intended to change you.  To cause some type of fundamental change in your beliefs, your model of the world, or your position on an issue.

Instead of taking notes, why not just be fully present instead.  Let go of the detail and concern of forgetting the facts later on...focus on the message in an engaged way.

Allow yourself the maximum opportunity to be inspired, persuaded...changed. 

Recall is overrated.

To stew or to do?

Shipping, shipping, shipping - the word is flying about these days thanks to Linchpin. Everyone wants to be seen as a shipper.

And for those of us for whom the _doing_ comes kind of natural, it's great. Value what we do best! Yes!

But I'd argue there's as much value in the stewing of an idea as there is in the execution. (Seth is shaking his head at me.) I'm not talking about over-doing it - that's the lizard brain kicking in - but without the stewing, how do you know the doing is worth it? Constantly shipping half-baked ideas is as much of a lizard brain activity as never moving at all. After all, you can point to all the stuff you shipped, argue that at least you tried and you can’t be faulted because you’re doing something. And bully for you trying, but boo on you for wasting time and resources on an idea that had no chance of flying.

There's an art to finding the right balance between the stewing and the doing. Knowing when you've given an idea enough thought to cover enough angles to feel confident it's worth taking a risk for. And knowing when it's time to stop looking at angles and take the leap and push an idea to completion. Without the wisdom to see the difference, the lizard brain can trap you on either side of the line.

Data Rich and Time Poor

If you read this blog, you're likely to identify yourself as an early adopter. That means you probably use a smartphone and have an account at most of the important social networks. You've bought a ton of apps, your RSS reader has more subscriptions than the local library, you publish your own status updates on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and follow a bunch of interesting people.

We used to worry about being "cash rich and time poor." Cash was the preferred way of keeping track. While money is still important today, we're collecting more than just cold hard cash now. We've got friends, followers, subscribers, tribe members, fans, hash tags, Google alerts, badges, checkins, virtual gifts and currencies, blog posts, status updates, tweets, feeds, groups, lists, data, etc., etc., etc. - all in "real time."

Early adopters of yesteryear had the upper hand in acquiring cash. They were just enough "in the know" to demand higher salaries and better perks. And getting as much paper wealth as possible was okay. But they'd work away the bulk of their lives while amassing greenbacks. At least they could spend it all on vacations during retirement. 

Today's early adopters have the upper hand in acquiring data. But it isn't clear if getting as much data as possible will work. Unlike cash, you can have too much data. Or stated in a different way, your capacity to spend cash is far greater than your capacity to process data.

I certainly don't want to go back to the old way of economic life. But...

How to be the top person in your field

Get really good at what you do.  But wait...that only gets you 25% there.

The person at the top of any field (including yours) is rarely the best.  They're simply perceived to be the best.  It turns out being the best and having others think you're the best are very different things.

I know you're probably working on the former...what about the latter?

Playing grunt, general, and medic all at the same time

I met a bright guy at a networking event. He's been preparing his whole life for entrepreneurship. He went to school as an undergrad at Babson College, one of the first educational institutions to position itself as specializing in teaching entrepreneurship. He then got into management consulting to learn how business works. Now he's going for his MBA at Duke. For his summer internship, he's working here in Silicon Valley at one of the fastest growing technology companies. Once he's done with his MBA, he wants to go into a business development position for a few more years before launching his own venture.

Listening to his story, I felt it might take forever before he decides to actually practice what he's been going to school to learn. That's the problem, you can study something so much and, until you actually do it, you're not doing it.

The bigger problem is that most of what he's learning is how to think like a business person, a manager, an entrepreneur. It's like learning from books how to think like a general in an army without having first been a grunt trying to survive on the battlefield. Something gets lost in translation.

As an entrepreneur in practice, you're the grunt, the general, and the medic all at the same time! This is a simple reason why traditional entrepreneurship education or MBA programs don't work. And why they don't produce enough entrepreneurs. They don't call your bluff.

Seth's Alternative MBA program called our bluff. There were nine of us. Each and every one of us had our lives changed. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, here's what resulted:

Marie Coiffure - a producer of high end content about hair care and art.

Tribes Win - a social media and strategy agency that has won some big clients.

Dale Interactive Group - a social media consultancy that specializes in publishers and authors (started before SAMBA but changed since SAMBA).

Swagapalooza - showcase events of new and unreleased consumer products.

LaunchHear - an invitation only network of influential bloggers and tweeters who get first dibs on new and unreleased products.

Who knows which of us will succeed but we're playing grunts, generals, and medics at the same time. We're in the field and that started in the middle of the program or earlier - the one critical element you don't get in traditional business education.

Call your own bluff - don't wait forever.

The Golden Rule of Feedback

When someone asks you for feedback on their idea, vision, or plan...they're entrusting you with a sacred privilege.  Don't mess it up.

We all know we should give useful advice, but at the same time there's a part of us (minus Simon Cowell) who worry about discouraging those we care about. 

So should we criticize?

Here's my Golden Rule of Feedback:

You can (and should) criticize the strategy, but NEVER the goal.

Although giving honest feedback is rarely the path of least resistance, it's your obligation as a trusted adviser. 

If your colleague has aspirations of creating the next Facebook, have the courage to question their plans, even if it's uncomfortable to do so.  If you have insight on a better way to do things, go ahead and make strong suggestions. 

In fact, tear apart their strategy if you believe it's warranted.  As long as you come from a place of caring, it's almost impossible to push too hard.

But don't you dare criticize the goal.  I don't care if you think it's silly to create the next Facebook...that's not up to you...it's off the table. 

Who are you to question their dreams...their vision...their finish line?

Dreams belong to the dreamer.  They transcend useful feedback.

How to be Lucky and Remarkable

When we think about luck, we often bring up images of winning the lottery, being diagnosed with a rare cancer, being born in one of the few wealthy nations in the world, or getting sideswiped by a drunk driver without insurance. These are frequently used examples of good luck and bad luck. We have little to no control over these random events.

These examples are freaks of nature, random outliers with little rhyme or reason. They aren't really useful examples of luck.

When we think more reflectively about luck, we usually come up with concrete occurances in our lives having to do with people and relationships. That special someone you met at school who is now your spouse. The stranger you bumped into at a networking event who connected you with your dream job. The rockstar employee you hired who didn't send in a resume but was referred to you by your buddy. You definitely didn't plan these relationships. You were so lucky to have randomly connected with these people! 

So let's change our understanding of luck just a little. I'm going to assert that luck is the posture and actions you take that make other people want you to win and succeed. Now we have a definition of luck that is dependent on people and relationships, not freaky random events of nature you had no control over.

Did people want Steve Jobs at Apple to win when he tried to bring beauty and simplicity to computers in an age of bloated and buggy Microsoft and IBM computers? What about Blake Mycoskie at TOMS Shoes who designed a socially responsible business by donating a new pair of shoes to a needy child for every pair he sold in stores? What happened when you rendered amazing service to the angry customer?

The thing is, when people want you to win, they talk about you. They give you the benefit of the doubt. They become evangelists and advocates. By definition, if people talk about you because they want you to win, you are remarkable, like Seth Godin's purple cow. What are you doing to make others want you to win? What are you doing to be lucky?