Enjoy!

Is that burger a great burger because of the meat and the way it was cooked and the pretzel bun and what kind of cheese and the specific type of mustard the chef chose to bring it all together?

Or is it great because you were really hungry?

Philosophy 101 reductions aside, context allows us to play in a world bigger and more complex than black and white. It’s the dichotomy and juxtaposition that turns something boring into something interesting.

Want to attract female attention? Be a rough and tumble biker with a pink belt or a perfumed dandy with an ugly scar on your face from a fight. Confound and confuse to attract attention.

Today’s example: Radiohead’s new video for Lotus Flower, a video that is nothing but Thom Yorke dancing by himself in a bowler.

Here’s a guy who made a whole movie where he shows how painful it is to be a famous musician… dancing. No special effects, no computer enhancements, no distracting anything (well, maybe the hat). And he’s not dancing ironically. He almost seems to be enjoying himself.

If Lady Gaga did this, we’d yawn. But when one of the indie-est of bands, the kind who like to release videos in which they aren’t really in them, release something like this, it’s bound to attract attention.

Because of the context we place on Thom and Radiohead. Without that context, its a nothing video. With that context, the web world will talk about it all day. Which is good because their new album is coming out today (or tomorrow, depending on who you know online).

Remember: No one cares about your marketing. They just want a problem solved.

Is there anyone who works without constrains and limitations? Anyone with an endless budget, a team of programmers and writers and artists at their disposal, a minion who follows them collecting every stray thought down in a moleskin notebook that is latter transcribed into digital form, and 27 hours in the day?

Can I have your job?

It doesn’t matter what the job is, there are limitations and constraints. Even top people at Google, who have more resources at their disposal at a moment’s notice than I may have in a lifetime, are constrained by branding, culture, and methodology. Consider the designer at google who has to justify that exact shade of blue by creating five permutations, running them all through multivariate testing simply to show that that is a pretty and effective shade of cobalt.

There are legal limitations (the Feds will break down your door and haul your butt to a prison in Nova Scotia (yes, that’s how serious they are: they are going to imprison you in another country) never to be heard from again), cultural limitations (sorry, we can’t say we’re the best at that because the owner is uncomfortable bragging about that…), resource limitations (sure, we’ll build that for you just as soon as our army of a million developers at a million workstations arrives), and even personal limitations (my watch only has 24 hours on it, and if I don’t sleep for some of them and see my wife for at least two of them, I’m going to be spending a lot more time looking for a new place to live…).

You can choose to hate them. You can choose to understand and appreciate them, or you can learn to love them.

You remember Mad Men’s first episode, right? Where Don has hit a wall of limitations. No more talking about how healthy cigarettes are, or how safe they are, or… anything. He’s trapped by the limitations. Frankly, I’m guessing he came up with his last 17 cigarette campaigns between drinks because there were so few limitations. And you know what? I’m guessing they were boring campaigns. Maybe .7% cleverer than anyone else’s (because he’s the hero of the story, duh), but still run of the mill.

When Don hit a limitation, he was forced to move in a new direction and grow creatively. He had his “It’s toasted” moment. He realized that his limitation was everyone else’s limitation and moved to where he realized they were all going to go, but be the first one there. Limitations allowed him to find new ways to be creative.

Limitations actually build creativity. Necessity of the mother of invention, and necessity’s sister is limitation (I am now tired of typing the word limitation, for the record).

Love your limits. They show you how to grow.

So… This morning, Jeremiah Owyang, he of web-strategist.com fame, dm’ed me that he thought this blog was cool.

After that, Seth Godin and Tom Peters came over and we chatted about business strategy and innovation over skinny lattes.

Malcolm Gladwell asked me for help coming up with a metaphor and William Gibson asked me to review his new manuscript.

Jeremiah, I have no idea how you found me, but I’m a big fan. Thanks so much for to reaching out. I’ll try to keep your interest.

Maybe this is the year we start re-writing/re-thinking the laws of marketing and business. Not just because of the economy and the crap that’s been happening the last few years (okay, on second thought, maybe they aren’t unrelated), we’ve started to move beyond the “Four P’s” and “Centralization v. Decentralization” conversations that have dominated the landscape for decades. Let’s get to the business of selling and leading by understanding. Yes, Covey got there first, but he’s a cult leader because he wants you to buy his Covey-branded organizer. This is a broader movement, taken by many in different directions, but under the banner of “Not better marketing, better products because of better understanding of the audience” and “No more ‘Us v. Them’ because we are all ‘Us!’”

Best Book of the Year: The Three Laws of Performance by Steve Zaffron & Dave Logan. Maybe the thing I like best about this book is that it is 200 pages. It doesn’t dawdle. It doesn’t try to impress you with a million examples. It’s not trying to pad the story along. It’s written with the confidence of two people who aren’t trying to curry your favor or win your respect. They know something you don’t and are willing to tell you if you’ve got the ears to listen. I want to send this book to every manager I’ve ever met and say, “No! Really! There is a better way!”

Fierce Leadership by Susan Scott. I know, crazy, right? Managers should stop parsing words and covering their asses, get their hands dirty with the “employees” and show some real candor. Maybe the name of this new era should be called “The End of Ego.”

Brain Audit/Masterclass by Sean D’Souza (psychotactics.com). I can’t tell if this guy is insane or just insanely great. It’s a tough call. Either way, he’s eating his own dog food with a big fork laughing the whole way home.

Tribes by Seth Godin. What else could I say about this book that someone else hasn’t (which is probably the antithesis of the internet, right)?

Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik. Google should invent a pop-up application that’s embedded in Google Analytics a la “Clippy” that’s just an animated head of Avinash telling you what to do next. It will be full of chirpy wisdom that sounds like it was recorded by a helium-addled Robin Williams but actually help you. It will tell you to look for your BFFs and study your bounce rate. I will admit that I will repeatedly go to the definition page just to hear him tell me what the definition of a bounce is and crank the speaks up.  This guy is the Oprah of Web Analytics. If you aren’t reading him, you are only pretending to know what you’re talking about.

The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators by Eric T. Peterson. About as “getting your hands dirty with details” as a book can get, but it is full of smart ideas on how (and what) numbers to present.

The 50th Law of Power 50 Cent and Robert Green. I know. I didn’t think it would be any good, either.

Honorable Mentions:

• Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.
• Cult of Analytics by Steve Jackson.
• Same Game New Rules by Bill Caskey (Despite it being from 2003).

Hey! Where the hell is Tom Peters? I miss that maniac.

I was wandering through my notes on a lazy Friday afternoon and came across something I wrote down about who I was and what I did.

“Through me, you will have the freedom to become more yourself.”

I don’t build websites anymore. I wont build an ad for you.  I don’t have a social media program I’m going to sell you to install on your server.  But through a program of seeing who you are and what you do and who you are trying to attract, I can make the minor adjustments that pay off huge dividends.

I don’t change you. I won’t tell Microsoft to get in the airline business or Kraft to get into massage business.  But I take the essence of who you are and make it 10% better. 25% better. 100% better. I focus you, I put you in front of the right people and amazing things happen.

Which is cool, but it makes for a tough pitch. What I sell sounds like magic. It sounds a little crazy, like I’m contemplating my navel in saffron robes.  

I’m a fixer, I guess.  I just wish I had a name for what I did.  Any thoughts?

Semi-related, Tara Hunt’s The Whuffie Factor is like the workbook for Seth Godin’s Tribes.  If I could force everyone at work to read them, I’d spend less time pushing a rock up a hill.

Actually, they didn’t call it the Little Red Book, but when I read it, it reads like The Book of Five Rings, short koan-like statements that sound like one thing but mean another.

Of course, when I read it, I can’t help but think of Dwight Schrute’s speech to salespeople:

(I love the way this one is edited)