Rare Bird Blog

Seven ways to reinvent yourself from Seth Godin

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Admittedly, I'm a fan of Seth Godin. Of course, most marketers are. The interesting thing about Seth and the dozen or so books he's written is that each and every one follows a similar style:

  • Identify the paradigm
  • Demonstrate why and how it's broken
  • Present an alternative
  • Challenge you to either accept or reject his thinking
But the last piece of the puzzle is what you do with it. If you reject it, it's up to you to set out to prove you're right; to demonstrate through your own successes that his view might be myopic. Of course, if you accept his thinking-- which nearly always means that you'll expect more from yourself-- well, then, you have the challenge of actually going out and doing something new, something different, and often something terribly risky in order to demonstrate your faith in the new World According to Godin. There's no pass. There's no easy way out. You either do or you don't, and then the work begins.

He recently released a brief manifesto (freely available) titled "Brainwashed" that deals with the way that we've all been trained to be trainable. How the 'system' has been working to make us cogs in the machine because the machine needed as many cogs as it could get. It's probably no surprise to you that the machine ain't what it used to be, but the system is still spitting out as many cogs as it can, much to the detriment of our economy, our future, us all.

So, what to do? Godin offers some salient and cogent advice: reinvent yourself. Here's how.

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-Jim Cota

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What matters now?

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

I came across this little ebook today and thought I'd do my part to pass it along. Here's a brief introduction from Seth Godin:

"Here are more than seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year. From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O'Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here. The ebook includes Tom Peters, Fred Wilson, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber.

Here's the deal: it's free. Download it here. Tweet it, email it, post it on your own site. I think it might be fun to make up your own riff and post it on your blog or online profile as well. It's a good exercise. Can we get this in the hands of 5 million people? Please share."

Download the free ebook, "What Matters Now."

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-Jim Cota

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How David beats Goliath (more often than you think)

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Underdogs win a lot more often than you think. Malcolm Gladwell explains how.

We're all familiar with the story of David and Goliath, where David stood before the giant of the Philistines and survived to tell about it. For forty days, Goliath had been dispensing soldiers with relative ease, until David came along. David rose to the challenge and, at first, girded himself with a helmet and mail and sword. But David recognized that waging this battle using conventional warfare would be suicide against Goliath. So he changed his strategy to take advantage of this strengths.

Malcolm Gladwell, in an article for The New Yorker, argues that this simple act of adjusting strategy is the key for weaker opponents – the Davids – to win against foes that greatly overpower them. He tells a compelling story of Vivek Ranadivé, who took on the job of coaching his daughters woeful basketball team, a bunch of “little blond girls” from Menlo Park, daughters of computer programmers. He says, “They weren’t all that tall. They couldn’t shoot. They weren’t particularly adept at dribbling. They were not the sort who played pickup games at the playground every evening.” Yet he was able to take them from obscurity to a national championship by changing the way they played: Instead of playing to the strengths of opponents, the adopted a relentless full-court press strategy and crushed the better-abled competition.

Gladwell suggests successes of this type aren't all that uncommon. In fact, political scientist Ivan Arreguín-Toft recently looked at every war fought in the past two hundred years between strong and weak combatants. The Goliaths, he found, won in 71.5 per cent of the cases. Thinking about the original David, who took off the heavy, unfamiliar armor and picked up five smooth stones, Arreguín-Toft wondered, when the underdogs likewise acknowledged their weakness and chose an unconventional strategy? He went back and re-analyzed his data. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5 to 63.6. When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win, Arreguín-Toft concluded, “even when everything we think we know about power says they shouldn’t.”

Which begs the question, what should you be doing to change the game to play to your strengths?

[Read Gladwell's article, "How David Beats Goliath"]


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-Jim Cota

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Jessica G. asks, 'Please disregard my previous email(s)...'

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

So this morning I received an email from Jessica G. at Donatos Pizza informing me of the April specials for Donatos catering. I didn't recall ever asking to receive this information, but hey, things happen right? I glanced at it and trashed it. A few minutes later I got another one. And then another. And another. At last count, I had received the same message at least seven times. Ooops. Looks like someone is learning how to use their new email software (at my expense.)

Then I realized that the messages actually included in the To: field all of the intended recipients, and there were *a lot.* Some names I know and recognize, others I don't, but I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach thinking about all the mail I would likely get from this hackneyed inclusion. (Best practice tip: Never send an email to several people unless you put the recipients in the blind carbon copy [BCC] field.)

A couple hours went by, and then I got this gem:
From: Jessica G.
To: (Me and everyone else on the original list)
Subj: Recall: April Specials from Donatos Catering

Jessica would like to recall the message, "April Specials from Donatos Catering".

Oh, Jessica. Poor lass. I feel your pain. How many of us have wished, at one point or another, that we could recall an email we'd previously sent? Unfortunately, the Internet (and, in many ways, life) doesn't work that way. Generally, once you hit "Send" it's sent. I suppose you could try calling each of the recipients and asking them to "Please disregard the email message I sent to you and hundreds of other people seven times this morning."

In the end, however, you're probably better off just forgetting it and hoping that the rest of us do, too. I hate to think of the ill will that was created toward Donatos Catering by this unfortunate turn of events, but people generally have short memories and will (eventually) forgive and forget.

(So you should probably stop sending me the message about recalling your message. Three times is enough.)
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								-Jim Cota

				

					
					
				

				
				   
				    
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Put Transactional Email to Work


			
Wednesday, June 11, 2008


Speaking in Washington last week, I encouraged the attendees to use the power of transactional emails as a viable means to improve their customer relationships. I noted that these messages tend to break through the clutter and are generally perceived as helpful tools for customers to remain current with the latest information regarding their orders. 

To illustrate the point, I suggested that retailers send emails at the following times (as examples):
  • Order Confirmation

  • Shipping Confirmation

  • Customer Service Messages (e.g., "By now, you should have rec'd your order..."

  • Requesting Feedback (e.g., "Please come back and write a review about your experience..."

  • Re-Order Reminders

  • RE-Engagement Efforts


Today I saw this chart from MarketingSherpa that speaks to this very issue. Customers pay attention to these messages, so they can be a valuable tool, but it's important that they are heavy on the information and light on offers.
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								-Jim Cota

				

					
					
				

				
				   
				    
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If You Read Nothing Else Today, Read This:


			
Monday, February 4, 2008



Real permission is different from presumed or legalistic permission. Just because you somehow get my email address doesn't mean you have permission. Just because I don't complain doesn't mean you have permission. Just because it's in the fine print of your privacy policy doesn't mean it's permission either.
Seth Godin
Seth Godin, pitchman for common sense and a marketer's marketer, wrote a post recently that should be printed, laminated, and stuck on the wall of every single person who is even contemplating sending a 'promotional' email out to a customer or prospect. Marketers everywhere should read it every day (some, probably twice a day.) They should point to it every time someone walks into their office and says, "Hey, we have an email list, right?" They should print extra copies and have them on hand for marketing meetings, sales meetings, board meetings, and water cooler gatherings.

In a word, this is the truth, as hard as it is to hear and as hard as it is to follow. Do this, and reap the rewards. Don't, and, well... The world is full of people who squandered long-term opportunities in pursuit of short-term gains.

[Read Permission Marketing from Seth Godin's blog.]
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								-Jim Cota

				

					
					
				

				
				   
				    
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