Seth Godin is my Zig Ziglar

For me, over the last 5 years… Seth Godin has been my Zig Ziglar. He hasn’t taught me how to sell, but how to over come the fear and or resistance of what it takes to be or try to be great.

From this interview…

No for now

  • The people you are calling on….
    • do not owe you a meeting,
    • they do not owe you an answer,
    • they do not owe you one minute of their time.
  • Crafting a perfect pitch letter to get their attention? Not a lot of faith in that approach
  • Rejection from people that care about you isn’t a bad thing
    • It is a message
    • not a message message of giving up,
    • but a message that you just told them a story that didn’t resonate (I like that word) with them that today.
  • They are saying…
    • do not bother me tomorrow with the same story,
    • you will not be able to badger me into doing business with you
    • but what you could do is
      • tell me a different story
      • about a different problem
      • on a different day….
      • because if you treated me ethically the first time, why wouldn’t I want to listen to you a second time.
  • AND… don’t try and get best customer first. Get them last!! start with the ones that are more likely to listen to the story carefully.
  • Because in the end, the best customers just want to know that all the other people have already said yes.

zig ziglar…

…do not become a wandering generality… instead figure out how to be a meaningful specific.

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Wanna Know More About Tim Ferris? Watch This

Kevin Rose interviews Tim Ferris – talking about everything from 4Hour Workweek to 4Hour Body and even his new book 4Hour Chef.

To me, Tim is a fascinating and for sure crazy guy with a lot of great answers and tricks for life.

Some of his stuff….

He picked the title of his first book 4Hour Workweek by doing analytics on google ad words

He went in to Borders Book stores and taped different versions of his cover to other author’s books to see how many people would pick up the different versions in an hour.

For more interviews like this check out Kevin Rose’s The Foundation 

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Best Press Release Ever!!: Woot Gets Acquired by Amazon

Nice job Woot. On getting acquired and making the best press release. This is the way to not take yourself too seriously and let your customers know – you are going to be the same company, even after you get bought by the man.

Kind of funny though how time flies. When did amazon become the man? Zappos and Woot in the same house – that’s kind a awesome.

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MBA Mondays from Fred Wilson on his AVC.com Blog (it’s like a cheat sheet for entrepreneurs)

One of the blogs I read the most is AVC.com.  AVC (I assume stands for A Venture Capitalist) is written by Fred Wilson (who is guess what – a venture capitalist).  And from the looks of it – a very good one.  He (actually his firm – Union Square Ventures) has funded all of the coolest things like Twitter, Boxee, Etsy, Foursquare, Meetup, Tumblr, Zemanta.

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All that’s good and stuff – but the big reason I try and read his blog everyday is that he is real.  He loves his company, he loves technology and he loves his family.  And he shares real stuff about it all.  All the way from his frustration with not being able to find an email client that he really likes (can’t we all relate) and how he and his wife can finish each other’s sentences so much that sometimes they don’t even start them, to all of the inspiration he finds on a daily basis from his technology portfolio companies and their courageous founders and the love and commitment he makes daily to his wife (who refers to herself as the Gotham Gal – he probably gave her that name?) and his kids (who blog too – Emily and Jessica).

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Not to often you get to see inside success and all that makes it and all that it comes with – ALL.

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On to the topic.  Earlier this year the AVC blog started running something called MBA Mondays.  The series lasted for 21 weeks – I think he missed one or two – go figure.  But they covered all the topics that any startup business would ever need to know, from things, like the difference between cash flow and an income statement, forecasting, budgeting (in a small, growing and big company), Pricing, Metrics, and on and on…..

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This series is like a cheat sheet for anybody about to or in the middle of getting a business off the ground.  They are things that I mostly knew about and all the definitions of – but had never really heard (or listened to) the meanings straight from an honest investor who is writing the check and getting involved.

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Anyway – good stuff – both the blog and the MBA Mondays.  Check em both out.
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Jack Dorsey on Drawing, Luck and Reiteration

I don’t know if Twitter is going to beat Facebook – even though I like Twitter way better. But, the one thing Twitter has over Facebook is the coolest founder names. Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone. Fugitaboutit.

Anyway this is a great talk by Jack Dorsey on drawing your ideas, sharing them, recognizing luck and Reiteration – all at the right time I would assume.

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Zappos at SXSW

Gotta love Zappos and especially the CEO Tony Hsieh.  All about Service and following through.  All companies want to be Zappos – but there are simply few that even come close.  Here’s a presentation about what makes them tick and some of the key metrics.

Zappos – SXSW – 3-14-09

View more presentations from zappos.
Found this on Slideshare.net.
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