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It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For

September 21, 2010 in management, worth reading by George | No comments

A student handed me a copy of It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For yesterday. He had been present at a guest lecture I gave on “Purpose.”

As he gave me the book, he said, “My father works with the guy who wrote this; your lecture reminded me of the book.”

Obviously, I started reading right away. Something that caught my eye on the first few pages was the idea that you should be driven by three key components:

1. Building an organization that truly makes a difference to the marketplace;

2. Becoming a leader of great purpose; and

3. Bringing your purpose to life so that your constituents know exactly what you stand for.

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Don’t forget to sign up for the 9GiantSteps email newsletter group. It’s a fantastic group of like-minded people to whom I send out SHORT email blasts presenting a digest of links and music of interest to our growing community.

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Sean Moeller’s (Daytrotter) writing

March 24, 2010 in creativity, worth reading by George | 5 comments

I’m going to just toss it out there (and, yes, he’s one of my closest friends, and I have the unbelievable honor of working with him at Daytrotter): Sean Moeller is the best active writer of music out there.

Now look, I’m not sure what you consider good writing on music, but for me, the bar is set by people like: Greil Marcus, Nick Tosches, Peter Guralnick, Ratso Sloman (at least in his On the Road With Bob Dylan), Studs Terkel (on jazz), and some others I’m forgetting.

What Sean has in common with all these brethren above (and, what’s up with it being all brethren? … someone, please, hip me to some great distaff music writers), is that it’s not about reviews, it’s not about – God help us – ratings/other qualitative horseshit.

Rather, it’s about context and it’s deeply personal.

This is what pisses some people off about Sean (and all the others I listed above). Reading through, for instance, Mr. Marcus’ The Old, Weird America, is just not feasible for some people. It’s not clear cut, it’s not obvious, it’s not handed to you on a silver platter…you gotta work for it a bit.

But, you know what, for those of us who are deeply, deeply infected by this music thing, anything less than the above (i.e. writing that is dumbed down, obvious, cliched…easy) is like eating fast food when you’re palette demands…I don’t know…Al Forno (I’ll leave the damn similes to the above).

Justifiably, Daytrotter gets a lot of attention for the curation of music and for the art…but, the writing’s part of the triumvirate, imho.

It ain’t for everybody (the writing on Daytrotter, that is). Some people leave negative comments. But, you know, I think that only proves the point. Do we want it to be for everybody? Do we like stuff that’s for everybody? Really?

Nah…we want the stuff that some people just can’t/won’t get, because we (and you know who I’m talking to) do get it, and need it.

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Worth Reading: The Cluetrain Manifesto

January 29, 2009 in marketing, music business, worth reading by George | 5 comments

Cluetrain Ch 1
View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: marketing music)
Cluetrain Ch 2 And 3
View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: marketing social)

Just go buy this damn book: The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual.

Really.

I’m using it for a new course I’m teaching on Music Marketing.

Can you imagine? A course on music marketing, huh. Fuck. Should just call it, “Give Up.”

Alas, music marketing it is.

Of course, the books I’ve chosen, Cluetrain, Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature, and Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die never really address music at all.

What ties them together is a belief that traditional marketing/PR is totally dead/worthless.

So, what to do? Give up? Nah.

Build a Tribe, of course. Start thinking in terms of markets being conversations. Start creating social objects.

Start doing the Straddle (Do bear The Straddle in mind should you flip through the embedded powerpoint slides below).

Fortunately for my students, it won’t just be me prattling on about marketing. I’ve already enlisted the help of the best the College of Business has to offer, Dr. Kendra Reed, and I’m looking forward to more of my colleagues chiming in.

Also, I’m going to get me some experts in the field to join the conversation: I’m looking at you Billy O’Connell.

The amazing thing about the book is that while it was written several years ago, it was pretty much on target about everything. It’s interesting to read certain ideas, and see that they’ve materialized. I read along going, “Yeah, that’s blogs; that’s Twitter, etc.”

It’s not all right; there’s a lot of talk of intranets, which (unless I’m out of it) seem to not really be terribly relevant today.

Perhaps the coolest/most horrifying thing is just how relevant it still is: I’d say there are maybe a handful of companies who are doing what they’ve suggested (and, they’re of course killing it), while most are still operating in the same way they did when the book came out (2000).

To give you a sense of what I’m on about, I’ve embedded my powerpoint slides from the first two lectures. Basically, I’m just grabbing the key points in the Cluetrain. Of course, in the classroom we pull these ideas apart, and discuss them. I’ll leave you to do that yourself.

Oh yeah, buy (or download) the book.

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Worth Reading: Mark Earls

October 20, 2008 in marketing, worth reading by George | No comments

I’ve gotten a couple requests recently for some reading recommendations, and here are two you really should check out. I was working on a big project over the weekend, and these books really helped frame my thinking.

Both are by Mark Earls who will make you question everything you’ve ever learned about marketing.

Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature

The Welcome to the Creative Age – Bananas, Business and the Death of Marketing

Gaping Void has a great q&a with Mr. Earls.

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Evangelizing: The rules of travel

October 15, 2008 in music, readings that resonate, worth hearing, worth reading by George | 5 comments

One of the things I like about traveling is that in those “non-productive” moments – such as when they force you to put your laptop/iPhone away while the plane is taking off/landing – I end up just letting my mind roam over the various reading materials I stockpile for such moments.

I always enjoy coming home and either going through my Moleskine to see what notes I’ve jotted down, or, more recently, syncing my iPhone with Evernote list with my lap top.

Here’s what I came back with this time:

Movie to see:
Withnail and I

Book to Read:
A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré

Music to Buy
Os Mutantes. A record I’ve had and seem to have lost, and now want to hear again.

S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things. Crucial 60s psychedelia.

The Kink Kronikles. Early Kinks comp.

Misc.
I underlined this quote from the Marquess of Queensberry Rules on boxing:

Don’t do away with combat, but create rules so that It can be waged in a reasonable fashion.

I also read about this great bartending idea of rinsing your glass with a complimentary booze prior to pouring the drink. So, for instance, if youwhen I make a margarita tonight, I will rinse my glass with Mezcal prior to pouring. You could apply the same logic to a manhattan, rinsing with a good single malt.

As always, I found tons of restaurants to visit in my travels, and I shall dutifully report upon them post haste. Watch this space.

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