Casual Fridays

DUST!N
So, we’re segueing into your book, Warriors, Workers, Whiners & Weasels and you have an accompanying blog with that, which is blog.warriorsandweasels.com. Can you tell me a little bit about the book?
Tim
Well, it’s a management philosophy that I’ve been working with for some time and thought I’d put it down on paper. Basically, what […]

Two posts by Big-Time Gurus recently addressed the same point.

1. Tom Peters:

Old story. But never an old story. I went to Whole Foods and Starbucks back-to-back yesterday afternoon. No holes: Every (EVERY—perhaps 6?) staff member was pleasant, chatty, informed, etc.

I remain amazed.

2. Seth Godin (read the post to get context)

Sure, she was an annoying nut. But she was passionate about containers, certainly. Smart hiring goes a long way.

Duh, you say? Yet how many businesses really hire people because they’ll be pleasant, chatty, informed, and PASSIONATE (specifically about your core offering)?

… when you can simply advertise with Blue Sheep?
I think Blue Sheep is a great example of the mindset of most advertisers and marketers today. The effort to be different is focused almost exclusively on the promotion. Meanwhile, their positioning (brand), product, pricing, placement (distribution), and people are unremarkable.
This is Flash-in-the-pan thinking. […]

If you haven’t checked out Squidoo, well it is worth a visit. By searching Seth Godin’s brainchild, I’ve found some great information on HR and ideas for a professional organization to which I belong.
Check out my lens when you have a moment. I haven’t really figured out what I want it to do, […]

Each weekday morning, I receive a bubbly, little invite to check out what I may win that day. It could be a business book (or a library of books), or it may be a seminar, CDs, an interview with a famous author, or a bag of crap from the lost and found (they’ve given […]

Are you spending all of your time trying to convert people to your product, service, church, organization, or political party?
Get ready for the long, hard road ahead.
I’m not saying that it won’t work, I’m not even saying it won’t be worth it. It is just a very difficult, yet strangely widely accepted, road to […]

Everybody stalls.
…but not everyone knows why.
I helped a VP of sales set up a program for listing available territories and each territory’s potential customers. The idea was that if they saw the untapped potential (of which the sales manager and CEO were vividly aware), the salespeople would be more motivated to pursue these opportunities.
One […]

How’s that old saying go? There’s nothing new under the sun. Seems like that has never been more true.
I know I quote and reference Seth Godin a lot. But sometimes what I love about his writings is not even the main idea. It’s what lies in the periphery of his topic. […]

What’s more valuable than a product to sell? How about a person who’ll buy?
While explaining the blockbuster success of Broadway’s upcoming Odd Couple, Seth Godin makes a not so odd statement.
The lesson is that the new marketing makes it a lot easier to make products for your customers (instead of having to run around […]

I was talking with a marketing colleague, Jason, the other day about whether or not faith and advertising can coexist. I shared with him Seth’s perspective that there are no side effects, and as marketers we need to ask if we’re OK with the effects of the products we promote. We came up […]