I had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Soni under Gulltaggen. We had a chat about how to create the perfect headline and how The Huffington Post works when they create content that spreads. Les resten av dette innlegget »
I had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Soni under Gulltaggen. We had a chat about how to create the perfect headline and how The Huffington Post works when they create content that spreads.
I had the pleasure of meeting one of my long time heroes and role models within marketing at Gulltaggen last week. Seth Godin had just delivered an inspiring presentation to about 1500 people, after he went of stage I went backstage to talk to him. Les resten av dette innlegget »
I had the pleasure of meeting one of my long time heroes and role models within marketing at Gulltaggen last week. Seth Godin had just delivered an inspiring presentation to about 1500 people, after he went of stage I went backstage to talk to him.
He was a really nice guy and even let me interview him. In the interview we talk about his thoughts on what marketers should and should NOT focus on, a little bit about how he works and how he thinks that technology sometimes comes in the way.
He also completely throws me off guard with his first answer to my question. Fun!
See all our Gulltaggen blog posts here.
See all our interviews here.
Originally published in The Fanbooster Blog.
Too many marketers in Norway treat their profession as they where vacuum cleaner salesmen, when they should act more like priests.
Working with marketing is about making more money, and increasing sales. It has always been that way, but they way you create results has changed drastically through the years. People change, adjust to their tricks, they’re starting to get immune to cheap sales points and the word “NEW”.
Vacuum cleaner salesmen made their living by disturbing people. Interrupting you in your everyday. Tricking themselves in your door and pushing for a sale. Most people don’t like vacuum cleaner salesmen anymore.
A priest. Well, he serves his community. He get’s them together, help them make new connections and friends. Gives them advice and inspire them to help him grow their community. Once in a while he asks for help, and his community is more than happy to contribute — but mostly he is there to serve to them. Give value. This leads to a long-term relationship, where he’s included in small and big happenings in his audience life.
A salesmen convince you that you have needs you don’t. He’s seducing you. A priest on the other hand, he listen to your needs and responds from that.
And that is exactly what marketers in 2014 should act like as well. Because that’s what builds relationships, loyalty and gives value for both the marketer and his audience.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Wasim Zahid for my Mad Island interviews. Wasim is a very inspiring man filled with passion and love. Enjoy the video.
Watch more at madisland.no.
Do you obsess over getting the time to get all the stuff you want done? Well, maybe you’re doing it wrong? I was.
I’ve spent years trying to perfect my time-management. I tried to perfectly time everything, and ended up running from one thing to another — not really being present in anything. Even in my sleep I was thinking about all the things I needed to get done.
Needless to say — that’s not very good to your mind or body.
Always being stressed and behind on sleep made sure the quality of my work was never at it’s best, and that stressed me out even more. It all changed when I decided to stop focusing on time-management, and began to focus on energy-management instead.
I started to go to bed early (around 22:00), and get up earlier (around 06:00). I also started (and this is the secret sauce) doing the really hard, complicated and/or boring stuff first.
Instead of jumping into my inbox and letting people decide what I should focus on, I choose the tasks that would give me the most progress. The problem was that my subconscious usually picked the easy wins that really did not matter in the big picture. But that made me feel good then and there, before I evolved into even more bad conscience. But by doing the tasks that gave a big progress first something happened.
I discovered that it was a lot easier getting my “bad conscience” tasks done as the first thing in the morning. My willpower, energy and ability to focus was much stronger. And as I started reading up on things I realized that I was not alone. A lot of people think that we have more willpower and energy early in the day. As the day pass by, and the longer we stare into a screen it starts to sink dramatically.
It’s easier to be re-active then pro-active when you select the tasks you should be working on. Re-active gives us the feeling of small quick wins, but being pro-active keeps you ahead of the game, and gives you a long-term win instead. It takes a lot of practice to be able to do every morning, but wow — when you get the hang of it, your days feel so much better. I sleep better, I don’t stress things and I have much more energy. More energy gives me more time to do the things that matters to me. In both my professional and personal life.
So try to focus on your energy instead of the time the next few days — you’ll feel a big difference. I promise. You’ll have the energy to do the stuff you want. Instead of being half present, half asleep, when you try to do the stuff you want to, you’ll feel well rested and present in the moment instead.
And that’s awesome. For yourself, and the people around you.
Over the years I’ve posted hundreds, if not thousands, of thoughts online. Words, blogposts, tweets, checkins, status updates, pictures and videos. I feel really lucky that while sharing I’ve built up an audience of wonderful people how often sends me emails, tweets and messages. That’s the number one reason why I still spend so much time sharing.
A couple of months ago, after blogging about how I like to work (norwegian link), I got an email from one of my readers. He wanted to know more about the tools I use to organize and work everyday. I’ve been and GTD (Getting Things Done) fan for many years, after my friend Morten introduced me to this method. And it’s been a life changer. By having total faith in my system, I’m never afraid of forgetting things.
So. What tools do I use to accomplish this? Actually, it’s just to apps.
Evernote
I use Evernote for collection everything. My inbox for everything if you like. Here I collect clips from the web, quotes I like, facts, pictures, links. I even take a picture of all the physical mail I get, and all the business cards and archive it in Evernote. I have two inboxes in my life. My e-mail inbox, and Evernote. Everything in Evernote is indexed so I’m able to search for any word in any document or picture. Even the pictures of my whiteboard scribbles show up in search. I never lose anything.
Every day after work I browse through my inbox and add tasks of the things I need to do before the end of the week. And every friday I go thoroughly through every item in there and process them all.
Omnifocus
While Evernote is where I collect everything, Omnifocus (on my mac, iPad and iPhone) is where I organize and decided what I’m going to spend my time on. Personal and business related stuff. I have all my active projects, all my todos and a timeline of when things need to be done.
I make sure that I have only five important things I have to get done every day. To give me the feel of accomplishing things, and after completing these tasks. I select five more. I only view five at a time, and only fridays under my weekly review I view them all – and review them all.
I start every task with a verb, and break them down to as many small tasks as possible. If a task needs more than one task to be completed – I create a project for it.
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By sticking to my system, and being consistent of where I store and how I organize. I have a lovely feeling of always being in control. It’s a powerful thing.
The last few months I’ve been reading more than I have been writing. Which has never happened to me before. When I write reading, I don’t mean skimming through words online — I mean reading. Focused, consentrated and really taking in every word. That kind of reading.
When was the last time you really focused on just one thing?
Reading in this way has also made me a better writer. I’ve realized that the fewer words I use to make the readers understand the purpose of what I am writing, the more powerful. I choose my words more carefully, and really take in every little word before spelling it out letter by letter on my laptop.
By just focusing on the this one thing I’m doing — I get more out of it.
That goes just as much for reading as it goes for life. I think we all should read more — and live, more.
This summer I read the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. It’s a good book where one of my main takeaways is that women need to take a more active role to seize the opportunities around them if they want to succeed in business. Where a lot of men take a step up — a lot of woman step aside.
The book contains a lot of stories and facts — and it’s an important book that both men and women should read. I’ve recommended it to several friends and colleagues, and everyone who reads it agrees.
One of my favorite points, is this: Opportunities are rarely offered; they’re seized.
Too many people are just waiting to get their chance and be seen. What they don’t realize is that this doesn’t happen more often then it does. Most people who’s looked at as being successful, got there against the odds. By working hard, taking the opportunities presented. And often creating the opportunities from thin air.
I’m a living proof. And that’s how I try to live. By doing the best with what I got, always being hungry for more — never be afraid of trying new things.
So the next time you see an opportunity, or want one. Take it. Don’t wait for someone to give it to you. Just take a leap of faith, challenge yourself. And amazing things will happen.
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