The Design Symphony Experience

The Seth Godin Experience

Last month I had the chance to meet the infamous Seth Godin - business writer, presenter, and marketer extraordinaire when he came to the University of Maryland business school.

Seth's writing is fantastic and his presenting lived up to his written word reputation. Here's my mindmap of notes from the meeting:

Download 3.4mb Mindmap PDF

The #1 takeaway for me from Seth's presentation?

Don't be afraid to risk.

And then risk some more.

Seth told a great story about one of his son's bathtub toys and a red circle that perfectly illustrates the point. Give me a call (two-zero-two -- 834-0111) or send me an email and I'd be happy to tell you the whole story (it's too long for a blog post).

Turning $10 into $10,000 in 10 Days

I'm asking an interesting question in the next few days... How hard is it to turn $10 into $10,000 in 10 days?

Kevin Bacon is famous for his acting - and for being the subject of a game called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon where you try to link any actor to Kevin based on movies they've been in. Building on this game, Kevin has decided to use the process of connecting to people to help raise money for worthy causes.

Between now and March 31st, the Network for Good is tracking the number of people who make a minimum donation of $10 to causes identified by individuals using badges like this:

The six badges with the most donations (number of donors - not size of donations) will receive a matching award from Kevin - up to $10,000.

I'm trying an experiment using the group I sing with (The Washington Men's Camerata) and our NEA-supported effort called The Demetrius Project. The Project is creating a global library for choral music - collecting and preserving the music for generations to come. We also offer pieces on loan to choruses and scholars around the world and are recording a series of CDs using music arrangements found in the collection's archives.

Can it be done? Time will tell... At the very least it's a fascinating study in viral marketing, social marketing, and the behavior of crowds!

Feel free to do you part and donate to the cause (feel free to give more than $10 if you like too!) by clicking the orange "Donate" button on the badge above or by clicking here. If you could ask friends and family to help out too - that would be even more fantastic (remember it's the number of donors we're trying to maximize!)

P.S. After you donate, send me an email (there's an ecard option when you process the donation) and I'll send you a special gift from The Demetrius Project!

The Post Office Experience

To most people in America, the phrase "going postal" is all too familiar. Becoming "extremely and uncontrollably angry, possibly to the point of violence" is a common experience for many visitors to the typical post office. Why is that?

This is a great example of why that happens:

This scene comes from my local post office here in DC where fourteen of us were in line the other day. Mid-afternoon, fourteen people in line, and one person at the counter. Two other postal employees were in the back chatting - loud enough for those of us in line to hear.

Why didn't they come out and help?

Why have us wait in line for 34 minutes (my actual wait time that day) when the other two clerks could have assisted and collectively served everyone in line in about nine minutes?

Why?

Because according to new rules, my local branch has been racking up too much overtime helping customers. According to their "staffing assessments" they only need one person at the desk in the afternoon and the other two people need to work in the back.

Folks, at the end of the day you want your employees to act like they own the business. You want them to cherish and serve customers. You want them to provide customers with a great experience.

Takeaways:
1) Eliminate the "wait" wherever possible - show customers that you value their time as much (or even more) than your own.

2) Reward your employees for acting like owners - with money, praise, and any other positive reinforcement you can imagine.

3) When all else fails - try humor. I've come to know Joe (the postal worker in the photo) over the last few years and he has a great attitude - something that is rare in my lifetime of postal experiences. Joe did his best to apologize to people for the delay, using his friendly and playful banter to keep us entertained while we waited.

At least one employee in the U.S. Postal Service understands that the name of the organization is the Postal Service.

P.S. Two of the people ahead of me were visiting from Europe. When their friend apologized for the delay, one of them said "Don't worry - it's giving us the chance to experience the U.S. Postal Service." (seriously - I'm not making this up) If I were the U.S. Postmaster General, I would be embarrassed by that observation.

Feel the JC Penney's Love

Last month I posted about JC Penney's new "Every Day Matters" campaign and promised some updated photos. Here they are - fresh from the JC Penney's homepage. The campaign theme is presented in a series of pages - each one encouraging you to make the most of every day.

No Thinking Allowed

"I almost rented that - but I didn't want to have to think"

On Friday I overheard a woman at Blockbuster say this in reference to the movie An Inconvenient Truth.

The interesting thing? Making you think is exactly what that movie was all about - and even though this woman never saw the movie, she heard enough about its main goal (to make you think) that she self-selected out.

You marketing is working well when people know about your main purpose/message without ever experiencing your product. Congrats to everyone involved in the successful marketing of this movie.

P.S. If you haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth - go rent it - tonight. Seriously. And then "think" of just one thing you can do to help the environment and start "doing" it tomorrow morning. It is going to take the efforts of the people - not the efforts of governments or corporations - to save our planet and it starts with thinking followed by doing.