Zappos gave me an idea....

About a year ago I was honored with an invite to take the world famous "Zappos Headquarters" tour in Las Vegas. An avalanche of blog posts have been written about the tour from many different perspectives and I can confirm that the tour is a great experience and one that probably inspires people to try to copy something about the way Zappos and Tony Hsieh operate their company. I make this assumption because I know it did for me.

Many things stuck with me from the tour but the thing that stood out the most happens to be the first thing I noticed when I got there....you see right at the front door (yes, in the lobby) there was two pretty big book cases containing what you would expect to be on a bookcase...books. But unlike a usual bookcase, these ones had probably less then 15 titles in total with each title almost getting an entire shelve to its self and being the kind of person who loves to read I asked someone what the deal was with the books and was told that the books are hand picked by the Sr. Management as things worth reading and the books are provided free for the staff.

These are new books and this is not a lending library...these books are there to be taken and read but there is no mandate to do so...only a suggestion and an opportunity.

I love this so much that I decided today to try to work this into where I work and on this here blog I am going to share with you the first handful of books I would stuff my shelves with....so here goes (in no particular order):

A Sense of Urgency by John Kotter - Quite Possibly the most thoughtfully inspiring book I have read in the last little while and has changed the way I look towards business building an motivation.

Manging By Henry Mintzberg - I haven't read this book yet but Henry Mintzberg is one of my favorite disruptive authors and happen to love his book Managers not MBA's a great deal.

Managers not MBA's by Henry Mintzberg - This book formed by opinion on the difference between Entrepreneurs and MBA's and is something I read once a year.

Trust Agents By Chris Brogan and Julien Smith - Both Chris and Julien are people I consider friends and are super smart in the ways of connecting with people online and profiting from those connections. This book doesn't just talk about the ways but walks you through strategies to do on your own and is a valuable read.

Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel - Mitch, another friend is one of the true thought leaders in the digital space and while I admit I haven't read the book yet (it is on my nightstand) I know from reading everything else Mitch has released through his blog or podcasts that this is something that people in an organization can learn from.

and finally....Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk - Because Gary is Gary and everyone can use a little of Gary's hustle in them.

Keeping staff inspired can only benefit your work environment and while this isn't the only thing you should/could do it certainly wouldnt hurt to share a book every know and then..cause as I learned as kid, Reading is Fundamental!

POW!

I have talked a lot about Andy Nulman on this here blog because well, he is a friend and someone I admire, respect and also have learned bunches from.

I love his book POW, Right Between The Eyes and am honored to be mentioned in it....so imagine how excited I was to see Andy on the Craig Ferguson Show promoting his book and am now inviting you all to share the excitement with me.

Some POWerfull advice and the art of Surprise!

Every now and then I will write about my Dad on this here blog. I love my Dad and am lucky because he has imparted a lot of interesting wisdom on me.

One of the two best things he told me that "Jealousy is a wasted emotion and you shouldn't spend your life comparing yourself to others"

Makes perfect sense and it is something I have taken to heart and is really the way I live my life. I am however not 100% free of jealousy because I am a little jealous of my friend Andy Nulman. I could go on and on about his career or his famous friends but the thing I really admire about him are his ideas.

His most recent gem is a brilliant way to promote his new book, POW! Right Between the Eyes: Profiting from the Power of Surprise, that is coming out in a few months.

Ya see he is giving away 200 free copies to anyone with a blog that asks for one!

Knowing Andy as I do I know there is more to this than he is letting on so I encourage anyone who is interested to jump on this offer!

Click here to read the deal right from Andy

I would be all over this myself but was fortunate to read an advanced digital copy. The book is so inspiring and my favorite chapter was the one I wrote all about me. That chapter isn't in the real book but since my copy was digital I took some liberties :)

...and in case you were wondering what the second piece of advice my Dad gave me, it was that cereal is delicious!

Guest Post - 5 Ideas for Saul's New Book

As it is Lindy Dreyer Week here at www.saulcolt.com, I (Lindy Dreyer) happily accepted Saul's invitation to guest post while he is traveling. I hope I can fill his crazy shoes for you.

I have to say, I'm very excited about Saul's book concept. During our conversation last week, he mentioned that all the good books have been written. Clearly not the case. And he told me that the publishers were not interested in anything that went beyond a very rudimentary, basic level for WOM. The publishers may not know what the market wants...I say, we're ready for something more advanced.

So, maybe in those two, simple sentences I was able to snap Saul out of whatever was holding him back. And if there's something holding you back, well, snap out of it! (Was that inspiring?)

Here are the 5 things that I'd like to see in Saul's book, possibly the next great WOM book.

1. Hard-hitting, practical advice at an advanced level
2. Examples from non-profits and associations, as well as small businesses and Fortune 500 companies
3. A sincere, detailed and balanced view of different types of WOM, and why some types are better than others
4. A discussion of measurement, including current techniques and bigger concepts--I know. Saul is cringing.
5. Something innovative that makes the book WOM-worthy


What would you want to see in the next great WOM book? What am I missing?

I am doing this so we can all curl up in bed together!

So it looks like I am going to write a book!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made a new friend this past week and without going into a great amount of detail of all the things that made her smart and cool I will just say she was tough to impress. We chatted a lot about marketing and WOM and out of nowhere she said “Saul, you should write a book, because that would really impress other women all over the world. Your life will become like an AXE body spray commercial and you will never want for anything”

Truth be told I am not 100% sure if that is what she actually said or if that is what I think she said because as soon as she said “Saul, you should write a book” my brain kicked into idea mode and started wondering if I had anything in me that could make an interesting read.

So now fast forward two hours.

I already had a list of things I could write about--Sneakers, Comic Books, 80's Hip Hop, WOM Marketing, Personal Branding and Personality Marketing. I realized that those topics have been done already and done well, so I have decided to do a book on “Saul Marketing” which is kind of a hybrid of all of those things…and I chose the word hybrid instead of combination because people think hybrid is “green” and everyone loves green these days.

So what makes me qualified to write this book?

Firstly, I am The Smartest Man in the World, and secondly I have been living and breathing non-traditional marketing for almost two decades, and unlike academics who write just books, I am a guy who has been doing these things and has seen some “Stuff”.

The working title of the book is going to be “Show Don’t Tell/Tell Don’t Show” and it will be a flip book.

No not the kind that you flip the corner to see an animation, but rather you read half of the book and flip it over to read the other half.

The “Show Don’t Tell” side will focus on creating customer experiences through real world touches and WOM activities.....oh ya and this side of the book will be entirely illustrated, graphic novel style!

The “Tell Don’t Show” side will be a good old fashioned written book covering some more traditional marketing ideas that can use a little innovation, like how to re-invent what you send in DM, how to stand out and how to leave an impression at every networking event you go to and will also go into depth on how to build a brand and generate awareness though in real and online worlds...heck and while I am at it I will probably touch on everything I know about PR and how to get people to love you by being remarkable!

So if you are still with me I guess I am announcing that I am starting to write a book. I don’t have a “book deal” so I am really writing this on my own and if it is interesting I will show it around and get it out there but I figure I would let you all know so you can keep asking me where it is so I don’t lose perspective of my ultimate goal….to impress Lindy.

An interesting thing I saw in a book store the other day.....

As I type this, sitting in the Smartest Man in the World Headquarters, I am surrounded by more then 2000 books (and I have read all except 4 of them). I love to read and book stores give me a weird thrill that for me can only be duplicated by dvd stores....but I digress. I was in a major Canadian book chain the other day and overheard an interesting argument.

At the check out area of this store there was an agitated guy raising his voice demanding a discount on his book since the price of the book was $24.99 us$ or $34.99 can$. His argument was that since the value of the Canadian dollar is at par (or worth a few pennies more then the US buck) then he should be able to purchase the book at the US price or that they should be the same price.

I am not sure if he spoke to the store manager but whoever he did speak to explained that there was nothing he could do and the customer stormed out.....without purchasing anything and at the same time he freaked out some other customers.

This was a HUGE missed opportunity.

Now I am not going to pretend to understand if this manager has the authority to discount anything and she probably handled things exactly as she should have. She was polite and respectful she just didn't give in to the demand.

The opportunity that is being ignored is a way to inject some personality into this brand by being a little self effacing and saying "Hey we noticed this disparity and we are going to do something about it". Have a company wide sale or promotion would boost the good feeling of the company as well showing a little humility by recognizing that there is something wrong.

(This post/idea can be co-opted to just about any store or business so when you think about this later don't get caught up on this just being about book stores.)

Companies need personality because people connect to people. People like when someone can say "we were wrong" and actually do something about it so by following my little idea is a great example of doing both..........and I would bet $20 that the first to do this would steal a whole wack of market share.

Now some of you are probably saying to yourself "This guy is foshizzle...don't he know that the cost of them things are determined by when they is bought and the Canuck buck has only been powerful for a short time" (That is how I imagine people who disagree with me sound) and yes I agree that there would probably be some money being left on the table but if you get 20% more business going into the holiday shopping season I am pretty sure you would do OK and continue with new business into the new year.

Trust me....I am The Smartest Man in the World!

-saul

Stuff I Like - The end of summer edition!

Hi Everyone!

I haven't done one of these "Hey look at me and what I like" posts in a while and I know deep down inside you really want to know what I am into right now so consider this a pubic service announcement of sorts for you to run out and be like me (ya know you want to) so with out further pause I bring you "Stuff I Like - The end of summer edition)....Ok one more pause, because I want to say that this list is far from definitive...I am going off the top of my head so if you want to add anything please feel free to add them in the comments!

Favorite Podcasts of the past little while:

This American Life Two eps this past month really moved me (in very different ways).

The first was called Unconventional Love "Stories of unconditional love between parents and children, and how hard love can be sometimes in daily practice." The first story was about a couple who adopt a child from Romania and the child's unwillingness to bond with his new parents. Being the parent of two adopted children this really spoke to me and made me almost cry.

The second was called Meet the Pros "The story of one man's journey from obscurity to international professional celebrity—aided only by his own hard work, a sneaker commercial, and mad handles." This story didn't touch me the way the first one did but I did think it was cool since it was a profile of "TRIKZ Da Silva" a regular guy who landed a spot in a Nike Basketball commercial that made him an overnight international celebrity.

You can check out the commercial(s) here

and the longer version featuring a bunch of NBA and WBA stars as well


One other Podcast that really stuck out this past few weeks was one by C.C. Chapman (Managing the Grey) about his recent decision to leave his job and work freelance. It also talked a lot about personal happiness and calculated risks. This podcast really got me thinking about stuff and making some plans....nothing to announce right now but stay tuned!

Favorite Books:

I kind of got out of the habit of reading this past month as my family moved into a new house and all my books are still waiting to be unpacked (before the move I was reading a book every 2-3 days on my commute) so I didn't a huge selection to draw from but two books I did read and really dug were Punk Marketing by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons and Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win by William C. Taylor and Polly G. Labarre Both books were great reads and worth your time!

Favorite Movies:

Really didn't see much this past little bit except the Bill Lee documentary Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey

and Finally (since I am running late for something) Favorite Music:

Elvis Costello : My Aim is True (Deluxe Edition) I know this is probably the 15th reissue of this album (as much as I love Elvis Costello I admit he has to be the most re-issued artist of all time) but this is an awesome version with an entire second disc featuring a live concert!

Black Francis : Bluefinger You can call him Frank Black or Black Francis but the former and current front man for the Pixies has a new album out and while it sounds a lot like the Frank Black solo stuff (and I love that)I have read that he is using the Black Francis persona because these were supposed to be tracks used for a Pixies cd.

Ok...that is all I got for now. Check back later as I am working on a big post about a major retailer that wont take my money. I should have it up tonight!

-saul