seth godin | Ian M Rountree

Links That Think – Falling With Grace

April 11, 2011 by Ian 2 Comments

I’ve been doing a lot more reading than writing lately.

Given that I follow about 200 RSS feeds in my Google Reader, a convergence of ideas usually takes some strain – however, this evening I found a sequence of posts that was particularly elegant.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to project planning, preparation, and the effects of preparation lately. As I’m revving my motor back up after vacation, I’m finding a lot of other people are being intentional about getting back into the swing of things as well.

First, Uncle Seth talks about how to fail – something we can all get better at. When I was learning Judo in my early teens, I found it fascinating that almost the entire White Belt is about falling correctly when you’re thrown. What can we learn about failing correctly, so that we land and spring back up when we’re thrown?

Then, Stan the Man at Pushing Social gave us some hints on how to fall into the “Burnout Sucker Punch” with grace – which is a great head-first guide to finding ways out of that pit of writing anhedonia.

Stan’s article reminded me of something James at Men with Pens wrote some time ago about avoiding writer’s fatigue – which still holds true. Setting yourself up early – like, before you even begin a project – is a good way to avoid, or at least delay, fatigue.

Preparation often equates with infrastructure – Amber Naslund dropped a post today about how, while infrastructure isn’t always sexy, it’s so necessary for whole preparedness. In particular, the preparedness she’s speaking of relates to moving on from social media being flash-in-the-pan to full integration. You can’t integrate without infrastructure.

And speaking of integration – Simon Salt at The Inc Slingers wrote a particularly puissant post about the integrity of your personal brand – and, in essence, how shutting down (prolonging your state of prone repose) after a fall can be helpful. Simon was speaking not just of falling down, but intentionally stepping away for down time – which is also key.

What are you learning lately about falling down and getting back up?

Should your blog be wearing a tie?

March 4, 2010 by Ian 6 Comments

People treat you different when you wear a tie.

For five years I wore khakis and a button-down shirt, open at the collar, with no tie. I got along with everyone, which was my job, and was mistaken for management wherever I went because I learned early on to walk with intention and assess everything I came up against with attention to detail.

Then I got a job in marketing and communications, and put on a tie.

My last week at the old job, I wore the tie along with the same uniform shirt I had for the previous five years. Starbucks barristas began treating me with retaliative scorn, and my customers divorced themselves from me fairly swiftly. I had, by adopting a symbol of formality, become something they could not properly associate with a retailer, much less one with tattoos and a bright smile.

Now, however, I wear a shirt and tie (I’m at my desk too much of the day to bother with a sport coat) and it helps me to fit in and raise the bar at the office. It makes sense, it’s the proper arena for attention to professional details.

In the mall, shirts and ties belong to customers, not salespeople.

Brian Levy, who was president of InterTan (RadioShack Canada’s parent company years back) famously said “The guy with the shiniest shoes sells the most.” It feels like a true statement, and might apply quite well to actual sales, but retailing is the wrong arena for that level of professional decorum. Or, at least it is now, because it’s no longer expected. And when you’re in customer service, managing expectation is a big deal.

What does this have to do with blogging?

Like any print communication, the frame has as much merit as the gallery. I’ve been experimenting with themes over the last few weeks as I develop a new one for this site, and doing some research on the visual and user experience aspects of well known blogs, and unfortunately it feels like many sites, themes and presentations fall into a number of predictable categories.

The Golf Shirt – You’ve got to love this one. Just like a gas station attendant or lowly clerk, the golf shirt class is the lowest common denominator of the blogging world. Whether it’s the default wordpress theme or a Thesis basic install, the Golf Shirt stands out for one reason; it’s the minimum possible effort made to fit into the most categories available. It’s always out of the box. And it’s disappointing.

The Elegant Pink Buttondown (with optional patterned scarf) – I used to have one of these. Dark, artsy, the kind of site design you just know is backed by a struggling writer spending his evenings in a coffee shop nursing a latte, reading Kafka over a pair of teeny tiny sunglasses – when it’s dark out. Unfortunately, unless that’s the feel you’re going for and the material you’re writing backs it up, this is going overboard, and is totally unnecessary. Besides, dark backgrounds with insufficient contrast create usability issues, which can alienate readers.

The Three-Piece Suit – This is where the tie comes in, and it’s where the most consideration goes. Professionals with custom-build Thesis deployments, high power pundits and marketers who know exactly what it takes to get information into anyone’s hands in a language they understand. This is the kind of blog worth blogging about.

But how do you choose?

I know, it looks like I’m being a downer and oversimplifying. Chris Brogan’s blog is a three-piece, but he never wears them. It still fits. Justin Kownacki wears sweater-vests, but his blog has a golf shirt on. Mine used to be the pink buttondown, but eventually will be a suit-lacking-a-jacket, because that’s where I am and it fits. Seth Godin’s blog – hell, shirt and jeans. And sneakers.

Which one of these guys has the shiniest shoes?

If you answered at all, you answered wrong. The point is, your look – whether it’s a golf shirt or a tuxedo – has to suit the work you’re doing and the environment you’re doing it in. Blogs wearing ties make sense for marketers, but if you write about comic books, the pink buttondown is probably your best friend. Or even a graphic tee-shirt and jeans.

At the end of the day, your audience has to be able to identify you before you get the chance to speak. Otherwise you just end up looking like a slump, or a suit.

Photo by JCardinal18.

How To Ruin A Compliment

March 3, 2010 by Ian 3 Comments

Actually, this is more about ruining the very simple phrase “You’re Welcome.”

It’s easier than you think. Instead of expressing a genuine reciprocation of the understanding that you’ve done something nice for someone, dismiss the entire event in as few words as possible.

Water under the bridge, some say. No problem.

I hate hearing someone say No Problem when they hear thank you. It’s become a universally accepted replacement for You’re Welcome, but it stinks, because at once you’re dismissing any effort you made on their behalf, as well as implying that a similar but perhaps broader request might sometime go unanswered.

Try it sometime, see how it feels. Spend a Wednesday answering with nothing but No Problem – then on Thursday, answer entirely with You’re Welcome, Glad To, or some other sincere acknowledgment that you had the choice not to help someone out, but did so anyway.

Own the work, and you’ll earn the gratitude.

Or is that too Seth Godin for you? You’re welcome.

Five Questions with Mark Dykeman – An Interactive Review of The Dip

January 9, 2010 by Ian 22 Comments

Last week I got the audiobook form of Seth Godin’s The Dip through iTunes – it was on for four dollars, how could I say no? – and finished it over about three days of on-foot commutes. I’ve since been trying to come up with a good way to communicate some of the lessons in the book.

Regular book reviews give me the gyp. I can’t write them. If you want a better example of a synopsis review, see Brad J Ward’s sum-up – he did a good job. I like the Dip. I like its message, I love Seth Godin’s writing. But I always have trouble with book reviews, because I look so hard to find application more than just assessment. So why not do something entirely different. Why not an assessment, then an example?

The assessment.

Godin is very good at adding value to simple concepts, but it still feels like you only need one page to write this book. Never quit is a stupid piece of advice, because sticking with things that aren’t working for you is a waste of energy, effort and capital. Godin uses the term Strategic Quitting very often in the book, and talks a lot about the things that are legitimate reasons for us to quit, and the irrational, reactionary reasons why most people quit and then, in true Godin fashion, he wraps it all up with a very simple message.

Being prepared to quit for good reasons (and knowing the reasons why you quit) is of infinite value in any endeavour. This is because, until you reach those limits- the ones you set for yourself when you plan, you’re never going to give up and you’ll eventually become (as Godin says so many times) The Best In The World.

The example.

I’ve been reading Mark Dykeman’s Broadcasting Brain for just under a year. It was one of the first blogs I happened upon when I was looking into doing this very thing myself – and I consider myself very lucky to have found it. Mark’s writing is incredible. The angle from which he approaches life is at once pragmatic and inspired; he gathers massive numbers of ideas for blog posts, and recently crowd-sourced a lot of wisdom about doing work better in the coming year. However, this is now. The dip was then. In August, Mark wrote a perspective on his previous two years of blogging, and it was a visible sign that he was leaning into a big personal dip. Or, perhaps even better considering the awesomeness he’s been producing lately, August may have been the end of the Dip, and the Mark Dykeman we’re seeing now is on the other side, on the hard hill upward, reaping all the benefits of his experience crossing the dip.

Here are the questions I asked Mark, and his responses. [Read more…]

Got it? Good. Now go publish something.