Godin 05-07-10: The Future of Media
May 7, 2010
A very cool friend pointed me to a vivid poem yesterday. I enjoy poetry that uses concise and precise word choice to compose a scene or evoke a complex response.
I thought about the condensed communication of poetry when I read Seth Godin’s
blog post on the future of media. It’s like a mystical parable, maybe even a zen koan, in that grasping all that it teaches will change your outlook on a lot of things.
Seth Godin’s core messages are contained in this post: find what captivates you, explore it and share it with the world, and your tribe of like-minded and like-hearted people will gravitate to you and provide you with opportunities to receive their gratitude as payment.
There’s also this other lesson we solo entrepreneurs need to catch. Print media is withering, especially if it’s not published daily. It will be replaced by timely digital publications sent to smaller, more narrowly targeted audiences. Heard that for a while, right? But read Seth’s post carefully. Then think about what you’ve heard about having an e-mail newsletter or a blog to build your business. I think as this new paradigm of digital media takes over, our blogs and newsletters are likely to wither, too.
Audiences will be getting compelling, detailed information from sources who immerse themselves in exploring, understanding, and explaining a topic. “5 Quick Tips” won’t be compelling to that sort of audience. It will work to capture the attention of the newbies joining the tribe, and they might sign up to learn more. But in order to keep the tribe’s attention we’re going to have to provide much better content. I’m betting the format of a personal note, a soft content article, and two or three sales messages won’t work in the coming years.
How will you adapt?
Consumer Debt: Seth and Dave Agree
May 6, 2010
Money is one of the biggest obstacles to people transitioning to a new career, especially one that involves self-employment. The other huge obstacle for people trying to work for themselves is marketing, and marketing at its core is about how to find people to pay you for your work. So money’s a hugely important topic for us.
I used to write about money sometimes when I published my monthly blog-zine, Chasing Wisdom. The archives are available here in the section “Pursuit of Happiness: Money.” Even though I continue to talk with clients and colleagues about money and how to have a better relationship with it, I haven’t written anything about it in a long time.
I realized it’s time to start when I read Seth Godin’s blog post about consumer debt. Partway through it, I though, Dang, he sounds like Dave Ramsey! A few lines later, he was giving props to Dave and linking to an article on Dave’s web site. It’s definitely time for me to share some ideas on getting along with money. I even created a new category to encourage myself to write on this topic regularly.
You get along better with money when you’re in charge. Spend less each month than you make. Save up and pay cash for everything you buy, except your home, and pay cash for your home if you can. Never borrow money to buy things just because you want them. Work, save, and wait. This is the way to show money you’re serious and you’re going to be in charge. Piling up consumer debt says you’re giving up and letting money run wild.
May You Have Everything You Need,
Steve Coxsey
Godin 04-25-10: Who Judges Your Work?
April 25, 2010
People who react with hostility to any criticism have a handicap. This is a key hallmark of a fragile self-esteem that, ironically, presents as self-adoration. Named for the mythological character who fell in love with his own reflection, the condition is called narcissism.
Sadly, some people think that in order to avoid this self-absorption, they have to give value to anyone else’s evaluation. Truth is, many people give their opinions freely although they don’t have the context or background to make their opinions useful. Others go the other direction, coloring their remarks with niceness and softening any criticism to the point of being useless.
It’s important for people who want to improve themselves and grow in meaningful ways to learn how to evaluate evaluations – how to critique other people’s critiques. When I was in a professional writers’ group for a few years, read-and-critique was part of our weekly meetings. I was taught early on that the thing to do with other people’s critique was to record it. That was it. Not arguing or defending our writing or criticizing the person giving the critique, but simply writing it down.
We were taught to consider the usefulness of the critique later, when we weren’t feeling defensive or emotional. We were taught to consider the comments rationally. Does that comment make sense? Does it show an awareness of the context? Does it follow general rules of quality narrative, or dialog, or action scenes? If a comment generated a lot of defensiveness, we were taught that might be the best gem. It might show us where we were overly devoted to a particular phrase, or where we had a habit we were “in love with” as a writer that really wasn’t working for the reader.
When we decided to set aside a piece of critique as irrelevant or not helpful, it was for a reason. Maybe the comment came from someone who didn’t realize the confusion was addressed in a prior passage. Maybe we discussed the feedback with someone else whose judgment we trusted to be completely honest and relevant and heard that person say the critique was off-target.
Knowing how to critique the critique we get is huge. This was the topic of one of Seth Godin’s recent blog posts. Read it and add these ideas to your toolkit for evaluating other people’s evaluations of you.
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Godin 03-28-10: What Teachers Make
March 28, 2010
Teachers are leaders. Leaders develop people. That’s mentorship, and mentorship is one of the things I’m really eager to advocate and eager to see spread around the world.
Seth Godin’s short blog post that pointed me to this video is here. I went ahead and placed the video here so you can watch it right away.
No More Carnival Games
December 22, 2009
My last two posts were about the sleaziness of tricking people into buying what they don’t really want, and the ridiculousness of people complaining the FTC is going to try to keep them from tricking people into buying something that’s not what they say it is.
Then I see Seth Godin’s recent blog post about his experience being bombarded by red light district marketing tactics. He suggests an alternative: cut the hype, cut the crap, no more deceit, just be transparent and deliver.
So are you going to sell at a street carnival, a back alley, or the public square?
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