Jill Konrath, one of the nicest and most down-to-earth sales experts you'll ever be lucky enough to meet, "tagged" me while I was out on vacation. Not one to shirk from my responsibilities as a member of the blog universe, I now must share with you five things you don't know about me. In the spirit of full disclosure, I'll admit that these are not the five most embarrassing, shocking or funny tidbits (you'll have to ask me over a drink to get those), but here you go.
1. I believe parenting is marketing. Sure, it's about keeping kids safe and healthy and teaching a moral foundation and all that, but day-to-day, I do more marketing to my nine-year-old, than I've done in my entire career. A great resource for parents that doesn't appear on any book list that I know of is Robert Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Just this week, I've used Cialdini's principles of social proof, consistency and reciprocation to have my son willingly clean up his room. If that's not effective marketing, what is?
2. I was a stand-up comic in the late 80s. During the heyday of comedy clubs, back before cable TV became the clearinghouse for all new comedians, there were a dozen or so open-mic nights each week at various venues throughout the Bay Area. While I was a relatively awful combination of Jerry Seinfeldian observational humor and early Ellen Degeneres' theater of the absurd style of delivery, I did learn the basics of delivering a fairly interesting presentation to groups. My greatest claim to fame was winning second place in the Marin County Comedy Competition hosted by Paula Poundstone.
3. I'm a huge talk radio fan. Regardless of political affiliation, the radio hosts I listen to absolutely amaze me. How a person can talk for hours at a time and not say "um," "ah," or "like" is a testament to their professionalism. My favorite talk show hosts are/were Larry King, Ronn Owens in San Francisco, Tom Leykis and Michael Savage, a man whom I couldn't disagree with more, but who is a master of the theater of broadcasting.
4. When I was a child, I thought I'd grow up to be an English actor. Not an actor, but an English actor like Laurence Olivier or Alec Guiness. No, I'm not British, but I did do a convincing accent for some time in my youth.
5. I have a natural suspicion of marketing gurus. Yes, I admire Seth, Guy, Malcom, Tom, Philip and Bryan and Jeff, among others. Sure, I think you should buy and read all their books. And indeed, many of their ideas are innovative and bold and could change the course of your life. But I always get a feeling when I'm reading their material that I'm entering a cultlike world, where complexity is reduced to such a degree that nuance no longer flourishes. Of course, I'm also the guy who bought the entire Tony Robbins course on tape, so you can see that while I'm naturally cynically, I'm also wildly optimistic about the next big thing.
And speaking of the next big thing, here's the one book you must buy right now for 2007:
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive by Chip and Dan Heath
I'll post a full review later on, and no, I don't receive any renumeration for recommending this book. But I guarantee it will transform the way you communicate.
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I'm supposed to tag five more people. I'll have to think on that a bit and get back to you.
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