Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. He has spoken twice at the prestigious TED.org conference and is consistently ranked in top 1% of all speakers at events he attends. "It's easy to see why people pay to see what he has to say" - The New York Times Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Posted by Seth Godin on October 15, 2011


Gala economics


The email feels like a welcome one.

“I’d like to invite you to…”

And then you find out it’s a charity gala.

500 people at an expensive hotel, eating a not very good meal and paying a great deal for the privilege.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. He has spoken twice at the prestigious TED.org conference and is consistently ranked in top 1% of all speakers at events he attends. "It's easy to see why people pay to see what he has to say" - The New York Times Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Sure, some of the money goes to charity (but too much goes for the chicken in white sauce).

Sure, it’s entirely possible you will have ten interesting minutes of conversation, and yes, it may be that you’ll hear a speech that will move you.

But I think we can agree that this is a ridiculous way to efficiently raise money for a good cause.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. He has spoken twice at the prestigious TED.org conference and is consistently ranked in top 1% of all speakers at events he attends. Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Galas and charity auctions and other events designed to raise money from the inner circle of a community suffer because they’re conflating several benefits at once.

First, being invited to a gala feels like a gift. It’s nice to be asked, to be noticed, to be included.

The socially appropriate response is to accept the gift and say yes.

Notice that the invitation isn’t being accepted because it’s a good cause, it’s being accepted because it’s a social obligation.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “Top 21 speakers for the 21st century,” – Successful Meetings Magazine Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Second, there’s a set of benefits to both the invited and the inviter.

The gala is held in a reasonably enjoyable venue, with lots of money spent on wine and food and such, all to benefit the attendees, not the charity.

The inviter gets the social gratification of hosting, plus the added benefit of feeling charitable.

The guest gets the social benefit of being included in this stratum of society, of having an excuse for a night out, and possibly the commercial benefit (lawyers, brokers, etc.) of being part of a trusted circle.

Again, none of this benefits the charity. [And having a big donor pay for the whole thing changes nothing.]

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. He has spoken twice at the prestigious TED.org conference and is consistently ranked in top 1% of all speakers at events he attends. Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

For this reason, the gala is actually corrupting.

Attendees are usually driven by social and selfish motivations to attend, and thus the philanthropic element of giving - just to give - is removed.

Attending an event that’s dramatically overpriced for what’s delivered to the recipient is a signaling mechanism as well.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “Take Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Mark Twain. Combine their brains and shave their heads. What’s left? Seth Godin.” - Jay Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

It says to the other attendees, “I can afford to overpay and so can you, we must be similar, and our hearts are in the right place as well.”

Do elements of our community need gala-like events to lubricate their social interactions?

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “Take Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Mark Twain. Combine their brains and shave their heads. What’s left? Seth Godin.” - Jay Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Quite probably.
It’s a tradition, particularly in certain cities and tribes.

But is it a scalable alternative to selling generosity for its own sake?


Seth Godin

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “The #1 marketing guru in the United States, though he disputes that…” – Selling Power Magazine Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Posted by Seth Godin on October 14, 2011


Skinnier


So many things that would have been money losers then can be profitable today.

When you run your own concert, selling tickets online and renting the theatre out yourself, you might be able to keep 85 cents of every dollar your audience spends on a ticket.

In the system we grew up with, by the time the box office, Ticketmaster, the stagehands, the promoters and everyone else takes a cut, you might end up with literally nothing.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “Take Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Mark Twain. Combine their brains and shave their heads. What’s left? Seth Godin.” - Jay Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Or consider a hardcover book that costs $20.
By the time the bookstore keeps half, the publisher keeps a share for the risk she takes, and don't forget shipping and returns... there might only be $2 left for the author.

With an eBook, the author might keep as much as $14 a copy...
More if he hosts the store and sells it as a PDF.

A hairdresser with direct relationships with customers can give up the storefront location and make more money by charging less and cutting the hair in her home.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “The #1 marketing guru in the United States, though he disputes that…” – Selling Power Magazine Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

A newspaper can happily support a few reporters and an ad guy if it gives up the paper, the offices and the rest of the trappings.

Too often, we look at the new thing and demand to know how it supports the old thing.

Perhaps, though, the question is, how does the new thing allow us to think skinnier.


Seth Godin

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “Take Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Mark Twain. Combine their brains and shave their heads. What’s left? Seth Godin.” - Jay Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Posted by Seth Godin on September 29, 2011


The forever recession

(and the coming revolution)


There are actually two recessions:

The first is the cyclical one, the one that inevitably comes and then inevitably goes.
There's plenty of evidence that intervention can shorten it, and also indications that overdoing a response to it is a waste or even harmful.

The other recession, though, the one with the loss of "good factory jobs" and systemic unemployment - I fear that this recession is here forever.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “The #1 marketing guru in the United States, though he disputes that…” – Selling Power Magazine Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Why do we believe that jobs where we are paid really good money to do work that can be systemized, written in a manual and/or exported are going to come back ever?

The internet has squeezed inefficiencies out of many systems, and the ability to move work around, coordinate activity and digitize data all combine to eliminate a wide swath of the jobs the industrial age created.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “Take Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Mark Twain. Combine their brains and shave their heads. What’s left? Seth Godin.” - Jay Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

There's a race to the bottom, one where communities fight to suspend labor and environmental rules in order to become the world's cheapest supplier.

The problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win...

Factories were at the center of the industrial age.
Buildings where workers came together to efficiently craft cars, pottery, insurance policies and organ transplants - these are job-centric activities, places where local inefficiencies are trumped by the gains from mass production and interchangeable parts.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “The #1 marketing guru in the United States, though he disputes that…” – Selling Power Magazine Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

If local labor costs the industrialist more, he has to pay it, because what choice does he have?

No longer.
If it can be systemized, it will be.

If the pressured middleman can find a cheaper source, she will.

If the unaffiliated consumer can save a nickel by clicking over here or over there, then that's what's going to happen.

It was the inefficiency caused by geography that permitted local workers to earn a better wage, and it was the inefficiency of imperfect communication that allowed companies to charge higher prices.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “America’s greatest marketer,” – American Way Magazine Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

The industrial age, the one that started with the industrial revolution, is fading away.

It is no longer the growth engine of the economy and it seems absurd to imagine that great pay for replaceable work is on the horizon.

This represents a significant discontinuity, a life-changing disappointment for hard-working people who are hoping for stability but are unlikely to get it. It's a recession, the recession of a hundred years of the growth of the industrial complex.

I'm not a pessimist, though, because the new revolution, the revolution of connection, creates all sorts of new productivity and new opportunities.

Not for repetitive factory work, though, not for the sort of thing ADP measures. Most of the wealth created by this revolution doesn't look like a job, not a full time one anyway.

When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory. Instead of coming together physically, we have the ability to come together virtually, to earn attention, to connect labor and resources, to deliver value.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “Top 21 speakers for the 21st century,” – Successful Meetings Magazine Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Stressful?

Of course it is.

No one is trained in how to do this, in how to initiate, to visualize, to solve interesting problems and then deliver.

Some see the new work as a hodgepodge of little projects, a pale imitation of a 'real' job.

Others realize that this is a platform for a kind of art, a far more level playing field in which owning a factory isn't a birthright for a tiny minority but something that hundreds of millions of people have the chance to do.

Gears are going to be shifted regardless.

In one direction is lowered expectations and plenty of burger flipping... in the other is a race to the top, in which individuals who are awaiting instructions begin to give them instead.

The future feels a lot more like marketing - it's impromptu, it's based on innovation and inspiration, and it involves connections between and among people - and a lot less like factory work, in which you do what you did yesterday, but faster and cheaper.

This means we may need to change our expectations, change our training and change how we engage with the future.

Still, it's better than fighting for a status quo that is no longer.

The good news is clear: every forever recession is followed by a lifetime of growth from the next thing...

Job creation is a false idol.

The future is about gigs and assets and art and an ever-shifting series of partnerships and projects.

It will change the fabric of our society along the way.

No one is demanding that we like the change, but the sooner we see it and set out to become an irreplaceable linchpin, the faster the pain will fade, as we get down to the work that needs to be (and now can be) done.

This revolution is at least as big as the last one, and the last one changed everything.


Seth Godin

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead. “America’s greatest marketer,” – American Way Magazine Courtesy of TED.org conference / Seth Godin

Posted by Seth Godin on September 30, 2011


Welcome to infinity


How many Twitter followers will be enough?

How many Facebook fans does your company page need?

How much traffic to your blog?

In the digital age, for the first time ever, most of us come face to face with the opportunity for unlimited.

No bakery can handle an infinite line, no orchestra could possibly have an infinite number of violins, no teacher in a classroom covets a classroom of infinite size...

But in the digital world, the pursuit of infinity isn't just possible, it's the norm.

The question: What price are you willing to pay for that pursuit?

Deciding that the only audience that is enough is everyone completely changes the way you measure your worth and your work.

If pursuing a number you will never reach changes you or your approach or your beliefs, is it worth it?

(The corollary of infinity is zero. As in zero people disagreeing with you, questioning you or ignoring you).


Seth Godin


Source: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/  

Seth Godin Courtesy of Seth Godin

Seth Godin


Seth Godin has written thirteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages.
Everyone has been a bestseller.

He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything.

Seth Godin has written more than a dozen worldwide bestsellers that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Courtesy of Seth Godin

American Way Magazine calls him, "America's Greatest Marketer," and his blog is perhaps the most popular in the world written by a single individual.

His latest book, Poke The Box is a call to action about the initiative you're taking - in your job or in your life, and Seth once again breaks the traditional publishing model by releasing it through The Domino Project.

Poke the Box Seth Godin has written more than a dozen worldwide bestsellers that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Courtesy of Amazon.com

As an entrepreneur, he has founded dozens of companies, most of which failed.

Yoyodyne, his first internet company, was funded by Flatiron and Softbank and acquired by Yahoo! in 1998.
It pioneered the use of ethical direct mail online, something Seth calls Permission Marketing. He was VP of Direct Marketing at Yahoo! for a year.

Seth Godin Marketing Guru Action Figure Courtesy of Amazon.com

His latest company, Squidoo.com, is ranked among the top 125 sites in the US (by traffic) by Quantcast.
It allows anyone (even you) to build a page about any topic you're passionate about.

The site raises money for charity and pays royalties to its million plus members.


Source: http://sethgodin.com/sg/bio.asp  



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