Up Market

---

• Work is Learning
• Mailing Lists for Creatives
• (3) Sales Skills That Every Marketer Should Have
• “I don’t make the rules”

Work is Learning Posted: 06 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PST I just started reading Seth Godin’s new manifesto, Stop Stealing Dreams. In it, Seth explores the role of education in the Internet-enabled society, where collaboration and connections are highly valued, and routinized tasks can be done cheaply. He asks the question: what type of education system will best serve our economy and our kids in the Internet era? Seth argues that we need an education system that teaches kids how to ask questions rather than give scripted answers, to do meaningful work rather than just find a job, and to connect, collaborate and share. He makes the case that our education system should do the following: To create a society that’s culturally coordinated. To pursue science and knowledge and pursue information for its own sake. To enhance civilization while giving people the tools to make informed decisions. To train people to be productive workers. That’s a great set of principles for an education system. I’d like to take those principles a step further and apply them to the workplace. Here’s why: it’s becoming more and more clear that in order to have a rewarding (in all senses of the word) career, one must learn continuously. To borrow from Harold Jarche’s website: “Work is learning, and Learning is the work.” Furthermore, each of us is responsible for our own education throughout our respective careers. We’re each responsible for developing a self-directed education “program” out of the available resources: formal university coursework, on-the-job training, networks, self-study, mentors, etc. So what do Seth’s principles tell us about how each of us can build our own professional development program? Here are my thoughts: To create a society that’s culturally coordinated: A good education program should include integrating yourself into the culture and community of your professional tribe(s). For instance, let’s say you are a web developer. Your program would involve understanding the trends and topics that are important in the web development community. You would be aware of the thought leaders. And you’d have a circle of contacts that you correspond, connect and share with. You would contribute to the commons: for instance, sharing your knowledge on your blog, or contributing your code to open source projects, or volunteering with a professional group. To pursue science and knowledge and pursue information for its own sake: An effective education program would involve finding areas that you are interested in, and work that is meaningful. The Internet economy greatly favors people who work passionately. People who learn, think creatively and solve challenging problems. This economy does not favor just “putting in your time” at the office or “keeping your head down” or detached drudgery. It’s hard to sustain enthusiasm and improve continuously if you’re not genuinely interested in your work. But finding work that is interesting and meaningful is not a trivial task. It requires time, it requires exploration, it requires a little risk, it requires connection, and – like most good investments – it requires an uncertain and non-immediate time horizon. To enhance civilization while giving people the tools to make informed decisions. A strong education program would develop your ability to make better decisions and to make decisions about more complex, difficult topics, both professional and personally. And it would mean cultivating your ability to make savvy career decisions and navigate your profession with confidence. To train people to be productive workers: This one is the most obvious because we have many established institutions that focus on professional training. For instance, colleges, university, and corporate training departments. There also are new Internet-enabled resources available, like TED, Khan Academy, Skillshare and MITx. These resources (both traditional and new) help us to learn new skills. To be more effective at our immediate jobs and take on new responsibilities. What are your thoughts? What are the key themes of a great professional development program? Have I missed any? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below! Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

Mailing Lists for Creatives Posted: 06 Mar 2012 03:00 AM PST Check out these tips to build and use an amazing mailing list.

(3) Sales Skills That Every Marketer Should Have Posted: 05 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PST Many are familiar with the concept that Sales equates to Marketing and vice versa. The end objective of both is to create demand and to generate revenue…one can't live without the other, right? True. But more importantly, there are characteristics that define great salesmanship that every marketer should apply to their efforts. 1. Creating and managing relationships. Just like in a sales environment, relationship management skills are an essential ingredient to building trust and user commitment. For all the focus on messaging strategies and campaign development, it's still necessary to get out (in the real world) to network. Have coffee with someone new every week, invite a VC or prospective business partner to lunch, and continue to attend industry events.  The closer you are, the marketer, to what the industry is saying, thinking or even why they are willing to invest in your business, you will have something (real) to base future decisions on. 2. Humanizing a brand or service.  Sales people operate live – via phone or face-to-face – with their clients and prospects.  Why? It's because there's something incredibly powerful, and humanizing, about putting a voice to a conversation. It adds personality, it lends credibility and most of all it humanizes what xyz product or service is trying to communicate. If a sales person only relied on email, or even social media, I guarantee they would never make their quota.  Marketers – pick up the phone. Call clients, call prospects, and call journalists. Tell your story. Pretend just once you are in sales, because frankly, you are. 3.  Following up.  A good salesperson is relentless. They don't want to hear you say "interesting"; they want to see you actually buy their product or service.  And they will come at you from all sides – dinners, lunches, phone calls, emails, etc. In marketing, do we always do this? Sadly, no, but often with good reason (e.g. CAN-SPAM). Yet, the best marketers actually do practice relentless follow-up by establishing key touch points with users across email, social, a website, retargeted media, and so on to follow them throughout their entire experience – online and offline. Whatever you do, do not drive leads to water and then fail to give them a drink.  A marketing "tease" will never build brand, relationships and revenue.  Follow-up – relentlessly. And yes, who knew marketing put you in sales? But it did. Own it. Rock it. Photo Credit: Jeffrey Gitomer’s “Little Red Book of Selling”

“I don’t make the rules” Posted: 05 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PST You’re right. There are some laws in life that are pretty consistent and uncontrollable. For example: Overnight successes rarely ever achieve their exito in a single day. It’s generally a process until they break through… The MTA buses in NYC will probably be late… Regardless of the girl, it probably matters to her if you buy her something on Valentine’s day. She knows Hallmark invented it, but it matters… Smoking will probably kill you or at least make you uglier before you die… You can’t make someone do something for the long-haul. It’s not scalable (free-will) … But for so many other ‘rules’ or customs, you do have a choice. When will you go to bed at night? What job will you choose? Which man/woman will you marry? How many kids will you have? What business will you start? What venture will you end? What new city will you move to? The day you will stop doing drugs… They day you will leave your abusive relationship… The day you will stop accepting the racist behavior of your co-workers… We tell ourselves we don’t have control. And while there are many, many things we cannot govern, it’s where we do have control that matters. That is what allows us to shape the world we live in… But that is the very authority we ignore, we hand over to someone else, we paint over with a blanket statement of: “I don’t make the rules, I just enforce/abide by them.” You have far more control than you think.

You are subscribed to email updates from Upmarket To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610