Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

Category: Jedi mind tricks

  • Why You Keep Buying Seth Godin's Books, Even Though You Already Know The Material

    Why You Keep Buying Seth Godin’s Books, Even Though You Already Know The Material

    Marketer and author Seth Godin is renowned for his short, punchy, effective books about thinking about your business. He’s a bestseller, and his books are widely lauded. Yet inside his books, there’s nothing supremely groundbreaking. You can summarize his last few books in just a two lines:

    + Have a unique and different product worth talking about
    + Tell authentic stories about your stuff

    Given this, why do people continue to buy his books like crazy? Seth has mastered a form of writing that only a few other authors have captured, including my teacher’s teacher, Stephen K. Hayes. It’s the okuden, esoteric style of storytelling.

    What is esoteric? Esoteric is an experience that originates on the inside. You can tell someone all about the taste of an apple, but if they’ve never eaten one, your words will never approach the real thing. Likewise, the things that arise from inside your own mind are far more powerful than anything external.

    When you read a Seth Godin book or attend a Stephen K. Hayes seminar, you’ll find your own mind “wandering” – by design. Both authors will get you thinking about stories of your own, about your own business, about your own training, and as they present ideas you already know, they’re encouraging your mind to actually apply those ideas to your stuff, which is what makes them valuable.

    How does Seth do it? Among the many skills, there are three that stand out.

    1. Embedded and actual questions. Throughout his text, you’ll find a surprising number of questions that you mentally answer as you read. This fosters engagement in the copy and gets your mind going. Isn’t it funny how well that works?

    2. Writing in second person. Grammar school teachers tell you writing in second person is a no-no. Scholarly journals command third person passive voice. Both disengage the reader from the text. Seth writes heavily in second person active voice – just like you are now.

    3. Detailed stories. Seth tells a lot of stories in his books, almost-case studies with quirky, human details and a focus on emotion. Doing so gives him access to not only the rational part of your brain, but the emotional part, too, and also encourages your brain to start retelling its own stories to you.

    What tricks and skills do YOU use to capture the attention of your audience?

  • If I were a true Dark Lord of the Sith…

    … I’d write a Facebook application that would silently download every scrap of data in the FQL accessible database silently, amassing it into a huge database and cross referencing it with other data collected from other sources. You know, stuff like all your photos (handy for blackmail!), your friends (handy for marketing!), your birthdate (handy for identity theft!), your groups (handy for marketing!), all that good stuff that marketers and evildoers normally have to pay out huge dollars for.

    Of course, I’d need to disguise my super-evil application as something cool, something that leverages innate human weaknesses, so that people wouldn’t think twice about installing my application and hitting OK without reading all of the terms of service.

    You know, like a Red Sox vs. Yankees application. Or a Patriots vs. Rams application. Or Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, Ninjas, or Pirates.

    Sadly, I’m not a true Dark Sider like that. But I’ll bet you someone else is, and you’ll never know. Actually, you might. Look for news about Facebook applications being sold for massive dollar amounts. Bet your Red Saber that the app itself is secondary to a massive database included with the sale.

  • Fuel for the engine

    In talking with a friend tonight, I posed the question:

    “What do you feed your brain with?”

    Power comes from within you. True, there’s a lot to be said for things like money and Rolodexes, power lunches, etc. but these are outward symbols of what’s going on inside your mind. The conversation got me to thinking about some of the things I fuel my brain with, and that in turn got me thinking about publishing a list of some of my favorite pieces of brain food. All of the food below is free to access!

    1. Mitch Joel at PodCamp Toronto – Building your personal brand. This is a 45 minute video that is worth paying for, but amazingly is free. If you finish watching this and your personal sense of identity is not refined, you need to watch it again.

    2. Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce – TED conference. A great session that gets you thinking about choice and happiness.

    3. Julien Smith discusses SEO – a great primer and refresher on the basics of search optimization. If you have any desire to understand the real power behind monetization and podcasting, then you need to listen to this episode of Canadian Podcast Buffet.

    4. Managing the Gray with C.C. Chapman – a great marketing podcast that will get you thinking about new media.

    5. New Comm Road with Bryan Person – a far more tactical perspective of the tools of new media, with techniques and specifics for implementation.

    6. Tony Robbins at TED – another great video on what makes human beings tick. Tony’s legendary in the human performance community and his stuff is ALWAYS worth watching.

    7. Stephen K. Hayes. Master instructor, master practitioner of ninjutsu, just about everything he does and creates is instantly usable and worthwhile. Some stuff will take a decade or so to marinate. His speech, Faces in the Mandala, is a must-read.

    My good friend Chel also reminds us that there’s great music to be had all over the place that is a profound source of inspiration as well. That is an entirely different blog post.

  • Superhero Powers You Have Right Now

    Here’s a breakdown of some popular superhero powers – and the means by which you have them right now, with no additional work on your part.

    Clairvoyance/Remote Viewing:
    – Google Earth
    – Google Maps
    – YouTube
    – UStream.tv
    – Flickr

    Telepathy/Empathy:
    – Blogs
    – Twitter
    – RSS
    – Email
    – Server log files

    Telekinesis/Psychokinesis:
    – EatNow.com
    – Webcams
    – Stickam
    – Buying anything online

    Psychometry:
    – Google

    Precognition:
    – Google
    – RSS
    – Data Aggregators
    – SPSS

    Astral Projection:
    – Second Life

    Clairaudience:
    – Podcasts

    Omnilinguism:
    – Google Translate
    – Babelfish

    Mind Control:
    – Online marketing

    Encyclopedic Knowledge:
    – Internet access

  • Second Life Furnishings

    I had an interesting thought today while attending Coffee with Crayon. If you haven’t gotten it already, I strongly recommend picking up a copy of The Timeless Way of Building, by Christopher Alexander. It’s a fantastic book, nearly legendary in some circles. It is to architecture what Gavin de Becker’s Gift of Fear is to self defense books, a landmark piece of work. One of the central tenets of Timeless Way of Building is this: space is defined by how it’s used. The patterns of human behavior are remarkably consistent across cultures, across languages, across boundaries of every kind. A space is defined by how we use it, which is in turn driven by how it makes us feel. A sunny window evokes a different emotion than a featureless wall.

    Here’s the funny thing in Second Life. A lot of the conventions of design don’t necessarily apply, or are at least not optimized for the virtual world, but are still necessary. For example, couches and chairs aren’t necessarily required because avatars’ legs don’t get tired like our flesh and bone counterparts. Doors and walls actually impede flight.

    So here’s the thought of the moment. Why put these things in? Because they’re First Life cues to help us understand what the space we’re in is supposed to do. For example, in this morning’s chat, we were discussing different spaces in-world, and why some spaces were more conducive to conversation than others. One of the immediate takeaways, architecturally speaking, is that big, open spaces where people can not only fly in, but see from a distance a gathering crowd, makes a difference for sociability. Visual cues from First Life, like sofas, couches, and chairs arranged in a pattern that is representative of what you’d find in a similar First Life space almost hijack our minds into believing that a space is less or more conducive to conversation. Crayon has done this brilliantly in the lobby of their headquarters.

    If you’re in-world, what First Life cues combined with Second Life functionality have you created to maximize the familiarity and comfort of your space in-world?

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