Win Seth Godin’s New Book – Linchpin
UPDATE: Most of this conversation is happening on Facebook – check it out here and join the conversation
Are you indispensable? Tell me why and you can win a copy of Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin. Watch the video for details and leave a comment, send a tweet, post on Facebook. Bonus points if you leave a video comment.
See Seth Godin talk about his book here:
Seth Godin – Marketing advice from PCBC – Video Post
Close your eyes (okay, mentally close your eyes). Picture a twelve year old girl who just won front row seats to a Hannah Montana concert. Now, picture Seth Godin presenting the keynote speech to close out PCBC. Now picture me, Mike Lyon, meeting Seth Godin. I am the Hannah Montana girl. For myself, my passion and business life overlap. The opportunity to not only hear him speak but potentially shake his hand was a large influence in my decision to fly from Tulsa, OK to San Francisco for the 2009 conference.
He was set up to do a book signing at 9:00am – 1 hour before his presentation. I set up camp at 4:00 a.m., not really, but I did make sure I was there early to ask a few questions, and maybe get a little bit of his genius to rub off on me.
Let me say – he dropped a few bombs, opened my eyes and even answered some specific questions I had pertaining to some clients. It was time well spent.
As far as marketing goes, it’s no secret that the homebuilding industry has a lot of catching up to do. We need to do things differently, now I know it’s not just me thinking this, but Seth too. I encourage you to listen to his words of wisdom in this brief video interview. My favorite quote “the low hanging fruit is probably the most rotten fruit” You’ll like his socks too.
So, how will you implement his advice this year? Leave a comment and let us know.
Here are some excerpts from the tweets I was blasting during his keynote:
- Opening line – We missed the warning signs and are here anyway We need to be congratulated.
- The market has made it easier for builders left to make through the dip.
- Comparing building business to record business – broke but not going away
- Perfect industry for the past 30 years. A house was also an investment. Now it’s different
- Home builders have been making brown cows. Average products for average people. Rethink building and selling.
- Timid trapeze artists are dead trapeze artists. Home builders need to be bold
- Tribes are built 10 get 10 get 10 enabled by Internet. Takes weeks not months. Only 1000 true fans needed.
- Seth Godin – he bought his house to die there.Homebuilding may be moving back to long term investments.
- Beatles did not invent teenagers, they just decided to lead them. We don’t need to create new tribes, just lead
- Fill your house with details that don’t match the spec sheets. If you treat green like a gimmick, you will kill the movement
- New home communities with tribes will outsell communities down the street with no tribes
- Tell a story – Connect a tribe – Lead a movement – Make Change
- Either quit today or make a commitment to do scary, patient, respectful things for 40 years
- Pick up the phone. Tell customers “I built that home you live in -do you like it?
- Do you have permission to market to past customers. Most likely not because you are afraid of getting sued for radon in the dirt.
- Make a pot full of money. Create and lead tribes while doing it.
Predictions from Seth Godin
For those of you who haven’t heard yet – Seth Godin will be presenting at PCBC this year. I am pretty amped about this. It is exciting to see this industry embrace his theory.
On that note – a recent post from Mr. Godin (may I call you Seth) highlights a few predictions:
Prediction: there will be no significant newspapers printed on newsprint in the US by 2012. So, you’ve got two and a half years before the newspaper industry is going to be doing something else with the news and the ads, or not be there at all. Does that change what you do today if you work in this business?
Prediction: 90% of your sales will come from word of mouth or digital promotion by 2011. How do you change what you’re doing today to be ready for that?
Prediction: The effort required to outsource a task involving the manipulation of data of any kind will continue to decrease until it will be faster and cheaper to outsource just about anything than it will be to use in-house talent. What will you do today to ensure your prosperity when that happens?
He makes this statement at the end, “It seems to me that if you know the old world is about to end, you’d run like crazy to master the new one.”
Now – Seth has been predicting for a while now – and so far, has a pretty good track record. In the home building industry, I think we can all learn from these predictions.
As I have been saying for the past year – I think there are builders that are finally in enough pain that changing is actually a better option than remaining the same.
I have a prediction as well, savvy new home building companies will be formed by younger principals that “get” internet marketing and the new consumer. They will find capital and buy up cheap lots becoming a competitive force in new markets – seriously challenging the larger builders. Do you have any predictions of your own?
