Yesterday I mentioned Seth Godin. Today I saw Seth tweeted out that he’s offering 3000 people the chance to get an advanced copy of his new book for *free ($30 donation to charity required)
Check out the details on his blog.
Looks like another great book and a great opportunity to snag a copy a few weeks early.
Jump!
Back in August my Wife’s Uncle Ed gave me a copy of Seth Godin’s book “The Purple Cow ~ Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable” as a gift.
Ed told me that he found the book at a used bookstore and he remembered once that I had blogged about Seth so he thought it was a fitting gift, and it was. I’m sure at one point I had a copy of the book but I couldn’t find it so it was nice to see it back on my bookshelf.
Side Note: Ed was visiting local second-hand shops because he had “accidentally” thrown away ALL of his wife’s cookbooks!! 
I was flattered that during his time in the dog house he thought of me.
This morning I was spending some time thinking about stuff and I just happened to grab the book and take a look at the inside cover.
Ed had left me a little note inside… “Pop Marketing, But enjoy.”
In a sense I get how Ed could have viewed it that way. The book at quick glance looks like a collection of short stories about the brands we all know about and the things they did to achieve success…Trendy, Pop-Type Stuff… i.e. Starbucks 
But as I skimmed through the book I began to quickly see why I’ve always enjoyed Seth’s work.
Seth has a certain way of saying things, but always follows up by giving you his outlook, and then asking us to look and think about what was said and how we can apply it to our own situations.
Let’s face it, traditional marketing books, training, and professional marketing educations” focus on the good old textbook taught 4 Ps of marketing.
I even once had a potential client in my office questioning my qualifications and my ability to grow his business. He did so by asking me if I knew the 4 Ps of marketing, assuming that if I did know the 4 Ps I was clearly qualified to be given his money.
Seth says the new P is the Purple Cow.
But here’s the thing I realized about Ed’s comments. It does look a little like Pop Marketing, I get it. But the underlying message is the same. If you want to achieve success you need to take massive action and if you want to achieve above average results, you need be a purple cow.
I mean, I’ve read through so many business books over the past few years and in the end they are really all saying the exact same thing.
Yet we continue to need more books and more of a push towards the same message being told in a different way.
The Personal Development niche is the same….Know your outcome, take massive action, don’t stop until you get the desired result.
Being a purple cow means taking massive action and being willing to fail, fail again, and fail again after that. But being a purple cow also means doing things differently than everyone else… kinda like stepping outside your comfort zone!
Here are three things from Seth to apply to your business today:
Ta-da!
I wanted to follow-up with a quick little post about my trip to Toronto to meet Gary.
First and foremost a big thanks to Stu Mclaren. Stu was filming a very private interview with Gary and invited me to sit in on the taping.
Stu conducted a fantastic interview and I hope he releases this interview to the public.
We’ll see…If not, tweet him up and tell him you want to see it.
Stu is the creator of WishList Member, a piece of software which allows you to turn WordPress into a fully functional membership site. The software looks pretty kick-ass in my opinion.
After the interview I was able to hop into an elevator with just Gary, myself, and his assistant. Gary and I had only about 20 seconds to chat before he literally jumped directly on stage for a crowd of about 200 people.
Gary reaffirmed some of my initial thoughts I had before going up to Toronto…
If you remember my last post or missed it, I spoke of how I sent Gary an email after reading Crush It.
For a guy that’s been traveling non-stop for weeks now on a book tour, he was pretty on the ball.
I didn’t have to remind Gary who I was or about the context of that email.
He remembered everything and jumped right in. Even when we first met he remembered exactly who I was and made a comment right away….. remarkable.
That was a lesson in itself, care.
During our ride in the elevator Gary mentioned a few things and one thing in particular I’ve heard him say on several occasions.
“Always remember that Legacy Trumps Currency”
We’re living in a day and age when everything we do is being documented for our children, grandkids and great grandkids. Gary holds the legacy we leave behind very high up on the totem pole.
I’m not going to go too deep into the details of what else was said since this was a very special trip for me…
Two weeks ago, while I respected Gary as an amazing entrepreneur and my go-to wine expert, I wasn’t really sure about the whole “Crush It” scene which was exploding like an unstoppable rebel force.
After reading the book my opinions and views on many things (including G.V) have changed tremendously. This is saying a lot about a 150 page book that’s thinner than a frozen hamburger patty.
Later in the evening I had another chance to talk to Gary and again, he left me with some kind parting words. As I attempted to thank Gary, it was him who was thanking me for that original email I had sent him.
He gave me some advice about moving onward, and that was that.
‘The times they are a changing’
If you haven’t had a chance to see Gary during his book tour or you have no clue who he is and why the heck I’m talking about him, the video below is pretty close to the presentation he’s been giving elsewhere on the tour..
Check it out and let me know what you think. ( I think you can only watch 10 mins of the video here and you’ll have to click the right hand corner “watch full program” to see it all) Or just click here to go to the full thing.
