Seth on art, love and money

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Steve Mays

Seth Godin puts his digital digit on why I would never put advertising on this blog (assuming anyone ever wanted to do so):

“Do your art. But don’t wreck your art if it doesn’t lend itself to paying the bills. That would be a tragedy.

And the twist, because there is always a twist, is that as soon as you focus on your art and leave the money behind, you may just discover that this focus turns out to be the secret of actually breaking through and making money.

Loving what you do is almost as important as doing what you love, especially if you need to make a living at it.”

Seth: “The growing productivity divide”

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Steve Mays

Knife150 I stopped being surprised by what people didn’t know –and didn’t care to learn– about “the Internet” a couple of years ago. My analogy was online ignorance was like not knowing how to use the telephone. As always, Seth Godin makes the point more clearly and forcefully with a little quiz:

Can you capture something you see on your screen and paste it into Word or PowerPoint?
Do you have a blog?
Can you open a link you get in an email message?
Do you read more than five blogs a day?
Do you have a signature in your outbound email?
Do you have an RSS reader?
Can you generate a PDF document from a Word file you’re working on?
Do you know how to build and share a simple spreadsheet using Google Docs?
Do have a shortcut for sending mail to the six co-workers you usually write to?
Are you able to find what you’re looking for on Google most of the time?
Do you know how to download a file from the internet?
Do you back up your work?
Do you keep track of contacts using a digital tool?
Do you use anti-virus software?
Do you fall for internet hoaxes and forward stuff to friends and then regret it?
Have you ever bought something from a piece of spam?

“Can you imagine someone who works in a factory that processes metal not knowing how to use a blowtorch? How can you imagine yourself as a highly-paid knowledge worker and not know how to do these things… If you don’t, it’s not hard to find someone to teach you.”

I don’t use an email signature but frequently sign smays.com which is almost the same thing. And, for now, no need for anti-virus software on the Mac.

Anyone reading this almost certainly knows how to perform these simple tasks. If you don’t, find someone to show you. Quickly.

PS: If you were only going to read 3 or 4 blogs… Seth Godin should be one of them.

Seth’s Nine Steps to Powerpoint Magic

Posted on October 6, 2008 by Steve Mays

A must-read/file/review on presentation voodoo by the master. It’s all good but these ideas jumped on my face like the Alien monster:

Don’t use Powerpoint at all. Most of the time, it’s not necessary. It’s underkill. Powerpoint distracts you from what you really need to do… look people in the eye, tell a story, tell the truth. Do it in your own words, without artifice and with clarity. There are times Powerpoint is helpful, but choose them carefully.
Check to make sure you brought your big idea with you. It’s not worth doing a presentation for a small idea, or for a budget, or to give a quarterly update. That’s what memos are for. Presentations involve putting on a show, standing up and performing. So, what’s your big idea? Is it big enough? Really?
The minute you put bullets on the screen, you are announcing, “write this down, but don’t really pay attention now.”) People don’t take notes when they go to the opera.
Ten minutes of breathtaking big ideas with big pictures and big type and few words and scary thoughts and startling insights. And then, and then, spend the rest of your time just talking to me. Interacting. Answering questions. Leading a discussion.

Life is too short to waste a precious minute watching a lame-ass ppt presentation by the the clueless and lazy. If it looks like I’m not paying attention, I’m not.

“…words belong in memos. Powerpoint is for ideas.”

“Interact or stay home”

Posted on May 19, 2008 by Steve Mays

Seth Godin writes of a new standard for meetings and conferences:

“Here’s what someone expects if they come to see you on an in-person sales call: that you’ll be prepared, focused, enthusiastic and willing to engage honestly about the next steps. If you can’t do that, don’t have the meeting.

If you’re a knowledge worker, your boss shouldn’t make you come to the (expensive) office every day unless there’s something there that makes it worth your trip. She needs to provide you with resources or interactions or energy you can’t find at home or at Starbucks. And if she does invite you in, don’t bother showing up if you’re just going to sit quietly.”

There’s little doubt I could do what I do from home (or the Coffee Zone) but gosh, I’d miss interacting with co-workers. I could get some of that over the net but I do like breathing the same air.

Having said that, I can do without the travel and hassle just to watch a Powerpoint show. On Saturday, I showed one of our top execs just how easy it is to stream live via Ustream. I could almost reach out and touch the little lightbulb that appeared above his head.

More Seth Godin: “Build trust before you need it.”

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Steve Mays

“The best time to look for a job next year is right now. The best time to plan for a sale in three years is right now. The mistake so many marketers make is that they conjoin the urgency of making another sale with the timing to earn the right to make that sale. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is just too late.” [Full post]

The only sales I’ve ever done was in the form of affiliate relations for our networks. Whenever a new GM took over at a radio station, I felt like the clock started ticking. My challenge was to meet, get to know and earn the trust of the new boss BEFORE I needed something from him/her. There’s just no shortcut to building trust.

Seth Godin: “Write like a blogger”

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Steve Mays

I quote Seth Godin so often I gave him his own tag. And sometimes he writes/thinks something so dead-on that I have to quote the entire post. Every word is gold:

"You can improve your writing (your business writing, your ad writing, your thank you notes and your essays) if you start thinking like a blogger:

Use headlines. I use them all the time now. Not just boring ones that announce your purpose (like the one on this post) but interesting or puzzling or engaging headlines. Headlines are perfect for engaging busy readers.
Realize that people have choices. With 80 million other blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and more exciting.
Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don’t have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time.
It’s okay if you leave. Bloggers aren’t afraid to include links or distractions in their writing, because we know you’ll come back if what we had to say was interesting.
Interactivity is a great shortcut. Your readers care about someone’s opinion even more than yours… their own. So reading your email or your comments or your trackbacks (your choice) makes it easy to stay relevant.
Gimmicks aren’t as useful as insight. If you’re going to blog successfully for months or years, sooner or later you need to actually say something. Same goes for your writing.
Don’t be afraid of lists. People like lists.
Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.
Say it. Don’t hide, don’t embellish.

What would happen if every single high school student had to have a blog? Or every employee in your company? Or every one of your customers?"

Quick decisions… little data

Posted on April 5, 2008 by Steve Mays

“Quick decisions based on the smallest scraps of data. It’s not fair but it’s true. Your blog, your outfit, the typeface you choose, the tone of your voice, the expression on your face, the location of your office, the way you rank on a Google search, the look of your Facebook page… We all jump to conclusions and we do it every day. Where do you want me to jump?”

— Seth Godin

Sorry, I don’t have a resume

Posted on March 17, 2008 by Steve Mays

I don’t have to look at resumes any more but when I did, I don’t recall ever seeing one –not one– that made me want to hire the person. I always thought they were pretty worthless. So does Seth Godin:

“I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

Here’s why: A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, “oh, they’re missing this or they’re missing that,” and boom, you’re out.

Having a resume begs for you to go into that big machine that looks for relevant keywords, and begs for you to get a job as a cog in a giant machine. Just more fodder for the corporate behemoth. That might be fine for average folks looking for an average job, but is that what you deserve?

If you don’t have a resume, what do you have?

How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
Or a reputation that proceeds you?
Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?”

Google yourself

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Steve Mays

Why? This from Seth Godin…

If you’re a salesperson, your prospects already do.
If you’re looking for a job, your prospective employers already do.
If you’ve got a job, your co-workers already do.

What do they see? Do you know?

…and this from Mindy McAdams (Teaching Online Journalism)…

“If you’re a journalist — or a journalism student who hopes to enter the field — this should concern you. First, what results do you get when you Google yourself (first name, last name, no quotation marks)? Most important, what are the top two or three links? I hope they do not go to pages about you that make you look like an idiot, a sex fiend, or a drunk.”

They both offer suggestions on how to improve your Google juice.

smays.com

"There's no way to sustain anxiety or depression when you're out of breath." — F Is for Fugitive (Sue Grafton)

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