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how to stay relevant

PSSS: Stay Relevant

How do you stay relevant?  I’ve asked myself this question at so many different situations in life – as a writer, musician, employee, or student.  In an ever changing world, how do you remain fresh and valuable.  Richie Norton gives an example of how to do just that in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid.  Richie writes that to stay relevant you have to “permanently live in beta.”

Stay Relevant: Live in Permanent Beta

how to stay relevant

Betamax video tapes, a passing trend from the 80s that is no longer relevant

Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, told Richie that the best way to remain relevant is to live in “permanent beta” or in other words, never stop starting, and always be in the creation period...

March 5, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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PSSS: Excuses For Not Trying – Time, Education, and Money

We make excuses for not trying our "stupid" ideas.

We make excuses for not trying our “stupid” ideas.

Most of us have something that gets us really excited, something that lights our fire.  For me, it’s writing, recording, and performing music.  For you maybe it’s something fun like horseback riding, surfing, research, film photography, eating ice cream, or crafting pillow cases.  Whatever it is that makes you lose track of time or become extremely focused, you probably have some amazing idea, something that you’ve dreamed of doing since you were a kid, but just haven’t mustered the courage to get started.  You likely have some excuse why haven’t started.  Maybe you’ve even told someone about the idea and they called it stupid, killing your spirit.  In my previous post I mentioned Richie Norton‘s upcoming book, The Power of Starting ...

February 21, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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The Power of Starting Something Stupid: A Book by Richie Norton

the power of starting something stupidRichie Norton, a friend of mine from college, is about to release his first book The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen & Live Without Regret.  We caught up recently and I told Richie about my recent involvement in the launch of Dan Pink’s book To Sell is Human.  Richie and I came up with a bunch of great ideas to help launch his book and so he asked me to help promote his book before it becomes available on 5 March 2013.  It’s pretty amazing how successful this book looks like it is going to be – it’s only his first hard copy book!  He published an ebook last year called Resumes are Dead, that book did really well also, and you can pick that up at Amazon.  I got a hard copy of the upcoming book in the mail not long after our chat and I tore t...

February 12, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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To Sell Is Human: How to Toubleshoot Your Pedal Board

***This is my last post on Dan Pink’s book To Sell Is Human before it becomes available for purchase on 31 Dec 2012.  If you are quick, you can still pre-order it and qualify for a number of awesome freebies.  If you pick it up later, you lose the freebies!  Thanks to Dan Pink and his team for sharing an early copy of the book with me and letting me be a part of his Launch Team.***

The last principle from Dan Pink’s To Sell Is Human that I want to highlight is what he calls Clarity.  Pink writes that those working in sales, or who try to persuade people, need to focus on bringing clarity to people’s needs instead of simply trying to push a product or agenda.  It’s not about moving units off a shelf, cars off a lot, or making sure to up sell the lobster before it goes bad...

December 30, 2012 To Sell Is Human One comment
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To Sell Is Human: Just Don’t Give Up

Staying afloat amidst a sea of rejection requires buoyancy. Just don't give up because to sell is human.

Staying afloat amidst a sea of rejection requires buoyancy.

Dan Pink writes in To Sell Is Human, “Draw a map of the world of selling and the most prominent topographical feature is that deep and menacing ocean [of rejection].  Anyone who sells – whether they’re trying to convince customers to make a purchase or colleagues to make a change – must contend with wave after wave of rebuffs, refusals, and repudiations.  How to stay afloat amid that ocean of rejection is the second essential quality in moving others.  I call this quality ‘buoyancy’.”

One of the most important principles to successful sales, according to Dan Pink, and one with which I agree, is to be able to stay afloat.  You have to stay buoyant.  But I would add that the heart of buoyancy is, just don’t give up.

The problem...

December 29, 2012 To Sell Is Human No comments
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To Sell Is Human: Don’t Burn A Gatekeeper

Making a Connection with To Sell is Human: The Burning of a Gatekeeper

I hung up on Ken (name changed for privacy) for the last time.  At 3 am I finally decided that we weren’t going to get paid for the show my band just played.  Ken was a promoter for a good venue in Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu.  He had caught our set a few weeks prior and made us a good offer to play a future show.  He said he’d pay us prior to our performance and guaranteed us a decent amount – that’s uncommon.  Before the night was over, Ken had disappeared from the venue where he was not only a promoter but a regular waiter.  During my first phone call with Ken, when I started to wonder where he had gone, he said he had to go and get extra money from his house because he came up short with what he had promised...

December 29, 2012 To Sell Is Human No comments
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To Sell Is Human: It’s Not About What You Know, It’s About Who You Are

Peddling our wares in Santa Monica, California because to Sell is Human.

Peddling our wares on the streets of Santa Monica, California

I realize now that I have worked in “sales” during many different parts of my life.  I write it with quotes because I haven’t been a traditional salesman in the sense of, “I have a product and I want to sell it to you for this much.”  But like Dan Pink says in his book To Sell Is Human, I have been in the business of moving others to action.  I’ve been a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Argentina; I’ve been a door-to-door salesman for Dish Network; and for the majority of my life I’ve tried to “sell” my music and myself as an entertainer.  So, I’m familiar with trying to get someone to believe in you and buy what you’re selling...

December 28, 2012 To Sell Is Human 2 comments
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To Sell Is Human: Principles and Posts to Come

To Sell Is HumanA week has passed since the shootings at Sandy Hook, Connecticut and life has gotten back to normal for some of us.   I’ve finally had a chance to pull myself away from the news, focus and finish reading Dan Pink’s new book, To Sell Is Human.  I need to focus some positive energy on something like this, so I’m looking forward to sharing a bit about it.

There is a lot to like about this book and I found myself underlining big chunks of it and coming up with lots of new ideas, the kind I get all excited about and try to explain to my wife, but she just grins and rolls her eyes at me because I get so worked up.  There’s a lot to digest so my goal isn’t to give a general run down of everything or to try to offer my review of Pink’s writing...

December 21, 2012 To Sell Is Human One comment
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Daniel Pink: To Sell is Human

My advanced copy of To Sell Is Human

My advanced copy of To Sell Is Human

Author Daniel Pink is releasing another great book, To Sell Is Human.  I’ve convinced his team that I’m worthy of an advanced copy and they’ve allowed me to support their marketing blitz.  My goal is to read the 9 chapters as fast as I can and share some key points along with some of my cheeky comments before the book drops on 31 Dec, kind of like I did with Good To Great in my previous posts.

Pink has written a number of other great books and has some really interesting ideas.  His website gives you a good overview of his other books Drive and A Whole New Mind.  I was initially drawn to his writings when I saw this animated youtube video where he talks about what really motivates people.  You’d be surprised – money is not the greatest motivator...

December 4, 2012 Books, To Sell Is Human No comments
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Good to Great #7: Flywheel and the Doomloop

***This is the last post I’m going to dedicate to the 7 principles of the book Good to Great.***

The principle of the flywheel and doomloop is simple. Imagine a giant flywheel suspended on it’s axle that is about two feet thick, twenty feet in diameter, and weighing close to two tons. Getting this wheel to spin requires a great amount of effort and determination. However, once enough momentum is generated the gigantic wheel requires less effort and can spin faster and faster. The wheel gradually builds momentum until it has a breakthrough moment of continual motion with minimal effort. Great organizations follow this same pattern of buildup that creates breakthrough.

The transformation from good to great can often look like a dramatic single-event success story to those observing from the ...

November 23, 2012 Books, Good to Great No comments
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