The American self-media god: from marketing gurus to entrepreneurial guides

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Seth Godin has the most popular marketing blog on the web. Those who believe in his entrepreneurial philosophy have summed up his ideas as follows: Let the change happen.

Article | Corie Brown

The internet in the late 90 was a toddler, but Seth Godin had earned it by training people to use e-mail directly to establish marketing relationships with potential customers. His ice-breaking "Permission Marketing" detailed his marketing theory and made him the mentor of the network pioneer of the era.

Over the next 20 years, Godin wrote more than 10 visionary business bestsellers and opened a popular column in Fast Company magazine, which he posted every day on sethgodin.com, which has been adage POWER150 ranked top 10 of the most popular business blogs, and most of the time the blog was ranked first and second. In 2005, he created Squidoo, a Web site that helps people commercialize their hobbies, and now attracts more than 53 million visitors a month.

Godin is not as dignified as it looks in a photograph. He is very strong and seems to be vigilant at all times, but at the same time he has a warm and relaxing atmosphere. He had the habit of preparing his guests for lunch, prepared rice, vegetables and fried eggs, which turned the official interview into a family-style gathering.

"The cost of failure today is much lower than it was 50 ago."

For the past 3 years, Godin has been updating his blog every day and giving speeches around the place. He does not hire a full-time employee and will get help from several long-time partners when his job requires assistance. Nor does he often use Facebook and Twitter, or even his own advertising and PR staff. His publishing company, Domino Project, was created in conjunction with Amazon, a publishing company that rarely hype Godin's books or put his books on the shelves in all bookstores. On the contrary, the reader's word of mouth makes Godin's works spread like a virus.

But when the new book "The Icarus deception:how high'll you Fly", Godin changed its usual style. The book, published by Penguin Group's portfolio company, Kickstarter the book's publication and successfully won 287,342 dollars from 4,242 users in 30 days. "I am very proud," Godin said. My books and blogs are not exactly the same readership, and I want to communicate with them very urgently. I want to talk to them through the book and have them try out the various experiences presented in the book. ”

In this book, Godin aims at the artist or the artist's temperament. He stressed that these people should realize that the moment that belongs to them has come. "How many people think ' what I'm going to do may not be successful before they go to work every day, but I'm going to do it anyway?" The answer is that few people think so. But this time has come, and that is the gist of this book, which is to teach people to enjoy this sentence. Because the cost of failure today is much lower than it was 50 ago. ”

At the same time, the rewards of success are no different than they were 50 years ago. "Now we will give people more money and freedom to create art," he says. ”

The art of creation is not limited to artists, but also to entrepreneurs and everyone else, even the crazy people who dance around the corner, and those who dare to show themselves have the opportunity to get their own audience.

"The industrial age is over, and we are entering a new era-the ' Crazy age '." In this era we have to build a system and use capital to nurture it. It is an indisputable fact that the recession is only temporary, but the demand for labour is shrinking. ”

The change, Godin, is a double-edged sword that could make the world a better place and possibly cause damage to the world. Why does it cause damage? Because some people may not be able to convert themselves from working for others to work for themselves.

These theoretical details can be read in Godin's new book. The book follows his usual writing style, neither the grand discourse nor the "roaring body" of inspirational books, Godin just slowly in his book, telling people to seize the moment and gain their own wealth before the obstacles arise. If enough people create good art, then the "broker" type will be in charge of the world, Godin thinks it will be very attractive.

When you walk into a bookstore, you will find books that claim to be able to get you out of a tiring job and create wealth and fame. Some authors even say that only 4 hours of work a week can create wealth, such as Tim Ferriss's book "The 4-hour Workweek".

But Godin's book is not such. He will not simply tell you how to succeed, but explain to you what success is. He can capture business trends in a short time. The book "Unleashing The Ideavirus", written by Godin in 2001, reveals that innovation will become the subject of society, and Purple Cow, published in 2003, discusses the importance of uniqueness in a world with a serious homogeneity; 2008 edition of "Tribes" One book explains how people in a highly connected world manage themselves in a new way.

Kevin Kelly is one of the founders of Weird magazine and the author of the book What Marvell wants. "Seth is one of the few people I know who qualify as a business mentor," he says. Strictly speaking, a mentor can unlock the wisdom of others, not just an expert in a field. He will always remind people of the immutable truths. He will continue to challenge himself and you to make you realize the distance between yourself and the truth. ”

Godin called himself a teacher, for students he has been pursuing the concept of "teach people to fish." "I've always said to people, try to put on a pair of glasses and see what you think of the world," he said. Do you like that world? If you like, try to change the real world with your own will. "#p # subtitle #e#

40 billion dollars worth of T-shirts

When Godin first started writing, he was a lot of people in the big business marketing department. Now, he prefers to teach those who accept his "post-industrial" theory, instead of ignoring platitudes.

The the 1960s New York State Buffalo, for Godin, is a place full of painful growth. At that time, everyone there liked to play ice hockey, and Godin would take part in the sport, but deep down he was always afraid of falling on the ice. At that time, every child went to summer camp, and Godin's parents sent him to summer camp in Ontario. "I don't like summer camp, where there are a lot of kids who like to bully people," he said, recalling the experience. "Although the summer camp did not leave him much good memories, he found himself enjoying a canoe coach at summer camp," he said.

His job is not just to teach the canoe skills, but to persuade the rest of the camp's children to do the sport, not to go horseback riding and swimming. He said: "The canoe is a challenging and exciting sport, if your technical action is wrong, the wind will blow you from one side of the river to the other shore." After a year of practice, I can finally teach people these skills, and let them try different techniques to control their breathing. I changed them and changed myself in the process. I've been a canoe coach for five or six years in a row, I'm good at it, and I love the job, and I've been trying to make a difference in the canoe movement. ”

Godin, who graduated from Stanford University Business School in 1984, joined a book publishing company that recommended the author's writing concepts to publishers. After 900 failures, he finally gained success. After that, he had the opportunity to create a greater miracle, but this time he did not seize the opportunity.

He showed us a T-shirt with a cartoon character with round glasses, which is now almost a sign of Godin. He said: "This T-shirt is one of my most precious collections, it can be worth at least 40 billion dollars." ”

The the early 1990s Internet is not as developed as it is now, Godin for a magazine to tell readers about the interesting things that happen on the Internet. He then used the materials to publish a book, and won a book contract worth 80,000 of dollars, a T-shirt that was one of the gift books. "It took 6 months to compile the book," he said. We have arranged all the materials into a 250-page book and sold less than 2000 copies. "While Godin for books, Jerry Yang and David Filo are doing similar things, but their media is not a book but rather a search engine on the web--the famous Yahoo in the future."

Godin said: "I also know that they have the resources I have." And I just compiled a dismal book, and they set up a company worth 80 billion of dollars. I realised that I could have built a company with a market capitalisation of at least half of Yahoo, so I said the T-shirt was worth 40 billion of dollars. ”

Godin said it was a valuable lesson he had learned. Then he created the Yoyodyne company, an internet marketing enterprise that Yahoo bought at $30 million a day in 1998, after which Yahoo's share price increased by $2 a month. #p # subtitle #e#

Entrepreneurship is an art

Yoyodyne is a small business that has defeated a lot of powerful enemies, when all the Internet practitioners did not realize the importance of the user, and Godin has begun to try to establish contact with the user. Godin like to say: "There are two ways to get married in the world." One is that you and every girl you meet say, ' Will you marry me? ' and then pray for a girl who's been hit or drunk to promise you, this is the ordinary advertising marketing; but you can also invite a girl to go out on a date and get to know each other and then go on a date until the final two people enter the marriage hall. ”

Yoyodyne provides clients with such a kind of dating service, when the world is undergoing rapid changes and all businesses don't know how to respond. In that case, companies are certainly happy to find companies like Yoyodyne to help them with online marketing.

Michael Landau, Yoyodyne's vice-president, is now CEO of the fashion salon Drybar. He told us that Godin asked him to explain to his clients the services he could offer. Godin said: "We are not selling advertising, at first the company did not understand our role." One morning in the shower, I thought about how to explain our service to them. I stayed in the bathroom for 15-20 minutes and the water kept on. A sudden inspiration came. What we offer is ' licensed marketing ' to consumers (permission marketing), and we provide consumers with product marketing information that they would like to see in relation to their lives. ”

He then publishes the book "Permission Marketing", which explains in detail his concept of licensed marketing. "Seth created his own marketing school," said Guy Kawaski, a famous Silicon Valley blogger. He is not influenced by other people's theories. He has been preaching the idea of being different--asking for the approval of consumers first, and then providing them with excellent service. ”

Laudau called Godin a mentor because Godin changed his career trajectory and his entire life. Godin will make you feel very tired, he says, because he always makes you think constantly. He never tells you what to do, nor does he give you the answer, but will help you find your way.

Drybar,laudau has been trying to control costs, especially the labor costs of telephone appointments, and he has considered offering a 1-dollar discount to customers who book via the Internet, but Godin's advice changed his mind. Godin suggested that he should increase the cost of the telephone operator, hire more wiring officers, and encourage customers to make telephone appointments, because they are willing to contact your brand, is the best publicity staff.

The book "The Icarus Deception" is a new attempt by Godin. The book brings together a number of excellent articles from his blog, as well as a return to investors on Kickstarter. "The book literally means ' Your plan may be successful, ' but in the back cover you see another sentence: ' Your plan may not be successful, '" says Godin. The book lists many of the programs and projects I have failed, and you have to learn to embrace these unsuccessful cases to achieve ultimate success. ”

Godin also said: "Economic ties make the world more rich in matter." Now, the world's jobs have changed a lot, the traditional posts have begun to fade away. Still, people can get a better life by starting a business, and now entrepreneurs have more opportunities than ever before. This is because the Internet has provided a link for people to promote themselves better. ”

"I can't generalize how fast the world is going, because new things happen every day," he said. Just a few years ago people were keen on television, and now they are starting to publish their own programs and podcasts on the web. Now, no matter which industry you are in, no problem can not be solved. As long as you want, all the problems can be easily done. ”

Entrepreneurs in the 1918 need to make sure they have enough production lines and product categories, and in 1950, entrepreneurs have to "do a lot of advertising delivery." Now, entrepreneurs need to make themselves more generous and bring more art to the world so that consumers can trust you. As long as we can do this, everything will be solved. Lu Yun

Author notes

Interviewing Godin, I actually have a dual identity, both a journalist and an entrepreneur. I want to be able to learn something from Godin to help me start a business.

I asked Godin about the sequencing of skills, talents, and communication. "If I'm talking to a diamond cutter or a heart surgeon, then they must think that skills are the most important thing," he said. But in the economic sphere, almost all of today's successful people are not people who specialize in skills. As entrepreneurs, our most important skill is the ability to communicate with people and the imagination about how we can change the world. This is the most basic human skill, but not learned from school. ”

On funding, he said: "It is not difficult for anyone who subscribes to this magazine to have enough resources to change the world." You can keep up with billions of of the world's people without a penny, for example, to start a business on ebay. Even if no one buys your product, you won't lose anything. With Google ads, you don't have to pay if no one clicks on your ads. Open a blog that leaks all the secrets you know, and nothing happens if no one browses. ”

On the failure, I said: "If my business is not successful, then I will be very painful." He replied: "Art sometimes brings pain." Bob Dylan is a true artist, even though he has repeatedly been blown off the stage by the audience, and Monkees such a spit song band has never been blown off the stage. ”

On how to find an audience, he said: "Theoretically, it is the audience that finds you, not you find them." If they hide, you can't find them anyway. But if you can maintain a generous attitude, they can easily find you. The so-called generous attitude is to provide them with a friendly, attention to their channels of communication with you. ”

(Note: The author of this article, Corie Brown, former Los Angeles Times correspondent and founder of the online magazine "Zester Daily")