SAMBA Blog

The secret to a good conspiracy

Most people have a deeply held belief that large complex conspiracies involving many people are impossible.  They have to be...it would be too difficult to pull off. 

The logic is that so many people would have to keep their mouth shut, that if it really did happen someone would've eventually spilled the beans.

But ironically, it's this very logic that ensures large complex conspiracies can be perpetrated.

Because if and when these whistle blowers do attempt to spill the beans, and reveal the conspiracy, they are sure to  be vilified, automatically dismissed as lunatics.

And they might be crazy...but if they're not, they'll be labeled that way anyway.

This is the ultimate marketing dilemma.  Trying to spread an idea, that people are programmed to deem incredible is destined to fail.

So in a way, the bigger, the crazier, the more unbelievable a conspiracy is...the easier it is to pull off.

Either way, we win

When something new appears on the scene we flock to it and ditch yesterday's flavor. Except for the folks who're making a decent living on yesterday's flavor.

All the current attention on Social Media has got people and organizations spending increasing amounts of time, money, and energy at the expense of Search Engine Marketing.

This is just another example in a long history of either/or thinking. "It's all about banner advertising." "It's all about Search Engine Optimization." "No, it's all about Social Media!" "Well, it's all about Brainwave Pattern Matching Marketing!"

Specialists can be expected to see their discipline as the Ptolemaic center of the universe. If they didn't, they wouldn't be any good at what they do.

Generalists and marketing purists understand that you do whatever works. Instead of the either/or approach, they subscribe to and thinking. 

And thinking about the and in our specific time and space, the marketers to come out ahead will blend Search and Social. Social Media will actually make SEO stronger! Social may fundamentally change the nature of Search Marketing and SEO - but those who can figure it out will rank higher and see greater conversion because social data and links will weigh more heavily in the near future.

Second impressions

First impressions are important.  But keep in mind...everyone knows that.

Everyone dresses nice on the first day.

But what are they wearing on the second day?  If you ask me, that's much more telling.

Have you ever run out of material for your blog?

Of course, that has happened to everybody!

Part of the problem is our reluctance to repeat or revisit content we've covered before. "I've already written about that, I can't write about that again."

But you only need to find a slightly different way to say it. Or a slightly different angle to look at it. 

The best reason to revisit, reconsider, and repeat a subject or idea?

New visitors. New visitors won't read everything. They won't use the search tool you provide. They won't go into the archives. They're just judging you for what you've written lately. It just might be exactly what they're looking for. It might help them and change the way they think about something. 

If you don't repeat what's important to you, you'll never get them to come back.

You know how

The self-hypnotizing pursuit of "how" can lead to perpetual inaction.


For some, that's the point.


For the rest of us...C'mon, we're better than that.

Puff Puff Pass

Warren Buffett has an investing approach he calls the "Cigar Butt" approach to investing.

"A cigar butt found on the street that has only one puff left in it may not offer much of a smoke, but the bargain price will make that puff all profit." 

Many shrewd investors have made small fortunes by finding cigar butt companies on their way to the extinction list, buying them, and liquidating the assets for slightly more than the purchase price of the whole company. Detractors call these types of investors corporate raiders or vulture capitalists.

Running a company that has become a cigar butt is probably the most difficult job in Corporate America. New competitors, technologies, business models have made your business nearly obsolete. What do you do?

There aren't that many choices and they can be mnemonically memorized.

1. (Puff) You can find a Warren Buffett or some other loaded financier and partner with them to take that last puff. Liquidate the assets piecemeal and walk away. In some respects, this is the most efficient way to reallocate capital. Shut down the laggard and invest the proceeds in investments with a brighter future.

2. (Puff) - Seek a corporate buyer to buy the whole enchilada at a bargain price. Your company is a cigar butt, no one is going to pay a premium price. There are legions of investment banks on Wall Street that would be glad to help you find a buyer. 

3. (Pass) - Act like a startup. The whole company is slowly marching to its death. Why prolong the inevitable? Why not change course in a revolutionary direction? This is probably the most risky and least effective use of capital or resources. Startups fail even more regularly than old cigar butts, but for different reasons. This is the one choice that's probably the path least taken.

• Cut every ounce of fat and go lean like a startup
• Devote every remaining resource to innovation and sales, even if that innovation means you no longer play in the same industry and need to find brand new customers you've never sold to before
• Change the culture completely - everyone who is just waiting around for the last puff needs to go

There is a whole professional organization called the Turnaround Management Association filled with people who focus on turning around troubled companies. Not every troubled company is a Cigar Butt company but I bet that most Cigar Butt companies that bring on someone from TMA end up being sold in a fire sale or dismantled.

Why don't more companies and managers take the Pass choice and make a revolutionary change to the business? It's the more difficult choice and requires bravery, imagination, and renewed commitment.

This is such a fascinating corner of the business world. 

Remember offline marketing?

I used to have to plead with businesses to consider online.  To start utilizing the power of the internet to spread their products and ideas (and I still do).

But as this internet revolution climbs to full speed, more and more I find myself doing the opposite.

So many businesses have turned so much to online marketing, they've forgotten about the power of offline.  And the irony is that as more and more of the world goes digital, the physical stuff gets more valuable.

A teleseminar has it's advantages in terms of convenience and reach...but nothing takes the place of attending a live presentation where you can feel the speakers presence in the room, and the emotion is visceral.

An e-mail will get read, but the real world colors and kinesthetic appeal of handing a well designed brochure to someone can create a different type of lasting first impression.

Setting up a facebook group to discuss a book is the thing to do, but creating a weekly in person book club at the local library builds unique bonds, and potentially customer evangelists.

It's our fault.  People like me have been pushing the internet thing so hard for sometime now, I don't think we've done a great job stressing balance and the value of both worlds (offline and online).

Go ahead, keep going strong with the internet stuff...you're doing great.  Just don't forget about where we started...because that's not going away.  In fact, I think offline's importance is increasing everyday the internet grows stronger.

He who controls the traffic controls the universe

How tenuous is Google's hold on search?

Stock market analysts and marketers keep an eye on market share numbers to answer this question. Google dominates the search market in the United States with what seems like an unassailable share. Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo! trail badly. Google's stock price moves up or down roughly in line with a combination of market share and earnings per share.

But that may be the wrong question to ask. Maybe we should consider a different question.

How much traffic does Google drive? 

In the early days of the Internet, we were still just trying to sort things out. Everything was so new and shiny and unknown. Now we've got a pretty good handle on things and don't go surfing so much anymore. We've all got our favorite websites and news sources. Our patterns are pretty much set.

During the early days we might have spent 50-75% of our time online searching.

Now maybe we're only spending 25-33% of our time searching.

And now there are other ways we discover new things. Social media helps us passively acquire knowledge. Email newsletters, based on a relatively antiquated technology, is making a resurgence and driving very valuable traffic.

The opportunity to drive traffic has never been more fertile.

It really never was about search. It's always been about attention. That most valuable of all commodities besides time itself.

Who cares what they think?

So often we fail to take action because we're afraid of what people will think...


But who exactly are these "people"?

Here's an exercise:  write them down (all of them).  When you take a look at the list, you'll realize that a majority of the people are acquaintances that will hardly care (you're not that important to them--don't flatter yourself).

That leaves a small minority of people who will care.  But here's the absurd part:  you're on those people's list too.


So assume a truce.

Selfishly Generous and not vice versa

Consider this... 

In order for you to be generous with your art, gifts, products, performance, service, and endeavors...

You have to be selfish with your time.

Consistency of success

As my finance professor used to say, "If you give 1000 monkeys each a piano, one of them is bound to play the first 4 notes of Beethoven's symphony."

A big score is impressive.  But when choosing who to follow, emulate, or model...look for a track record of consistent success. 

We work with everybody...

"Who are your clients?"

"What kind of customers do you work with?"

"What size of companies do you work with?"

Marketers and salespeople are often asked these questions by prospective customers or clients. Just as good salespeople qualify their prospects, customers qualify potential vendors too. Unfortunately, marketers and salespeople treat these questions as an opportunity to show how flexible and adaptable they are.

"We work with everybody. From large companies to small companies to individuals, service companies to product manufacturers, enterprises and consumers, everyone under the sun."

The best marketers and salespeople craft their messages to exclude, segment, and identify.

You may actually want to sell to everyone and anyone who asks about your product or service. But that's not what you want to say.

What you want to say is, "I work with customers just like you." 

The consequences of resentment

If we secretly resent others as they succeed...

What are we training ourselves to believe will happen when we succeed?

Respecting the Early Adopter

What is an early adopter?

We all know at least a few early adopters. Usually we mean someone who buys the latest gadgets and toys. But maybe that's the lowest common denominator for the label.

If you're a marketer, it helps to think of early adopters with deeper respect. True Early Adopters (capital E & A) don't just buy things. They do things and think about things differently than most people. Early adopters adopt new behaviors and the seeds of cultural uprisings. Early adopters form strong opinions about new experiences and articulate them masterfully. Early adopters send strong signals to the rest of the population to either stay away or join the movement.

A lot of people buy new things nowadays. That's no longer as useful a distinction as it used to be.

Helping people see

Before I learned design, I was blind to it.  When I created my first website, I thought it was a visual masterpiece.  Now, when I look at it, I want to throw up.

That's because I couldn't see...until someone helped open my eyes.  But the funny thing is that once I learned I quickly forget how it felt to be blind.

But I'm not just talking about design--chefs, marketers, wine connoisseurs...somewhere down the road, they all learned to view the world differently.  To appreciate their art on a different enlightened level.  And of course, once we reach this stage, we naturally want to share and influence the people around us.

But we forget that it's nearly impossible to influence someone effectively who doesn't see the way that you do.  So we have two choices:

Either find other people who already see, or help others learn to see (open their eyes).  I think the latter is more difficult, but more rewarding.

Your crazy résumé doesn't suck

Employers used to value steady résumés. By steady I mean the kind that shows you stuck around at your jobs for at least 3-5 years each. If you switched jobs often, changed what you did often, lasted only 6 months to a year per gig, or left gaps in time, red flags went up in a hurry. Your résumé went quickly into the trash.

Most employers still behave this way but those are the ones building factories and looking for cogs to stick in a machine. They just don't want to replace those cogs very often because training you for their regimented systems takes a lot of time and money. Turnover is expensive.

The companies, organizations, bosses, and partners on the edge don't behave this way. Changing jobs and skills don't throw up red flags. They don't toss your résumé out. They prompt more questions. 

What will your answers be?

Mental currency

When someone says no to your pitch, it's not always because they didn't like it.

They might've said no, because they didn't want to even allow your pitch to occupy space in their mind.  Because as soon as it does, they have to expend their finite mental energy to evaluate it. 

And people are as stingy with their mental currency, as they are with their monetary. 

The Greatest Bargain of All

Seth Godin once wrote, "Great employees are the last great bargain." Survival is Not Enough, by the way is one of my favorite of Seth's many books. It's underrated so you can get it for a bargain.

One of my takeaways or interpretations of Seth's teaching during SAMBA was, "Design is the last great competitive advantage."

So great web designers, artists, UX/UI superstars, cultural anthropologists and storytellers, and industrial designers are the greatest bargain of all.

Mentally survey all the companies and organizations you admire. They have an abundance of design talent and taste.

No cheating

In our increasingly hyper connected world, we know our first 100 users can bring us our next 1000 and beyond. 

And so it's logical for marketers to race to the first 100 with a "grand opening" of sorts:  Launching with a discount sale, or temporarily hiring a celebrity as one of the first users, or giving away iPads.

That'll get you there fast.  And that could work...but possibly at a cost.

Because the first 100 is your nucleus, and filtering for the right people is critical.  You want the type of user that falls in love with your service for the right reasons.  Because that's the type of person who is likely to become the raving evangelist you need.

This is tough, because it requires patience, and fortitude.  But not only is organically getting those first 100 important , if nothing else it's a test.  Because if you can't get those first 100 without outside lures, than maybe that's a sign that you need to change your product until you can. 

Psst...help a brother out

Shipping art, in all its many forms, whether as a fashion designer, entrepreneur, sculptor, camp counselor, charity fundraiser, etc., is a scary thing.

It's why so few actually do it and why those who do are so important to this world.

But just because you ship art doesn't mean we'll ever find out about you. You can scream at the top of your lungs on a rooftop but you'll be drowned out by all the noise around us.

That's why those of us who spot something remarkable, something made with passion and courage and intelligence and generosity, need to do our part to help the world see. We need to champion the risk takers.

We need to whisper as softly as possible to anyone around us who'll listen. It's the only way to beat the noise.

We need you, and they need you, to whisper.