I attended The Art of Marketing conference (#taom) in Toronto last week. The day was jam packed with top speakers – among them Seth Godin, Mitch Joel, Sally Hogshead and Dan Heath – and the learning was top notch.

I wanted to share some of my key learnings from the event (as always, your comments are welcome).

1. Staring down the lizard brain

Seth Godin talked to us about the lizard brain, the part of our brain that allows us to compromise or to play it safe when the right answer might just be to take a risk. Formally, it is defined as “a key component of the limbic system in the brain, involved in the experience of anxiety, distress, and fear.”

People need to stare their lizard brain down and embrace risk where appropriate  if they are going to break out of their comfort zones. The vast majority of us are ruled by our lizard brains that prevent us from doing things differently. To be sure, paying heed to our lizard brain is important at times (like ducking when a baseball bat is flying at us, as Godin illustrated in a series of amusing slides) but evidence suggests that the lizard brain dominates our actions at work and prevents us from innovating.

More on the lizard brain can be found here

2. Seven Fascination Triggers

Sally Hogshead spoke about 7 things that trigger fascination: mystique, power, lust, prestige, alarm, vice, trust. I found this to be particularly interesting because understanding the role that emotion plays in a purchase decision often dictates whether you get the sale.  Or in other words, “facts tell while stories sell.”

Her best example was illustrating how Jagermeister – the “popular drink nobody likes”  - came to prominence despite tasting a bit like “battery acid.” People don’t drink Jager for the taste, they drink it for the experience as evidenced by the savvy marketing which links hardcore partying to drinking Jager-bombs. People rarely remember Jagermeister for its taste; they remember it for the environment they were in while consuming it.   An important difference.

3. Bright spots.

Dan Heath spoke about the power of focusing on bright spots in our organizations vs the natural human tendency to focus on the negative. In the face of overwhelming obstacles, the power is focusing on the bright spots and growing those parts of your organization.

He cited the example of how Save the Children was able to reduce malnutrition in Vietnam. By focusing on the bright spots (ie. studying what mothers of healthy children were feeding their kids and replicating their methods across several villages) versus getting lost by trying to combat the larger, more overwhelming problems like poverty and unclean drinking water.

4.  Quality over Quantity

Mitch Joel talked about popularity contests in social communities and why having as many Twitter followers as possible is missing the point. It’s better to focus on better quality followers, keep them engaged and nurture that community as much as possible. This is the easiest way to create a committed fan base vs targeting as many people as you can (as the saying goes … “jack of all trades, master of none”).

5. Every month, 20% of Google’s search terms are new

Wow. Talk about having to adapt quickly when user search queries are turning over at that rate. This creates an incredible opportunity for long tail businesses, but can also be pretty frightening for established players who are not able to adapt as quickly to changing consumer preferences. This fact came courtesy of Mitch Joel.

6. The emotional vs the rational mind

Dan Heath gave an amusing example of the  Clocky alarm clock, an ultra annoying alarm clock that wheels around your bedroom until you chase after it to turn it off. A very effective way of ensuring you wake up in the morning. This example illustrates the tension between the rational and emotional mind. The rational mind is what sets the alarm clock the night before knowing full well it has to deal with the emotional mind at 5am that desperately wants to press the sleep button. Creating a hostile environment for sleep through the Clocky’s erratic movements is what guarantees the person will wake up.

Overcoming the tension between the rational mind and the emotional mind is the key to change. Heath uses the analogy of a Rider (rational mind) and an Elephant (emotional mind) to further illustrate this point. From his book Switch

“The Rider provides the planning and direction, and the Elephant provides the energy. So if you reach the Riders of your team but not the Elephants, team members will have understanding without motivation. If you reach their Elephants but not their Riders, you’ll have passion without direction. In both cases, the flaws can be paralyzing. A reluctant Elephant and a wheel-spinning Rider can both ensure that nothing changes. But when Elephants and Riders move together, change can come easily.”

7. Be an artist

Seth Godin quipped “The first person to put a urinal in an art gallery was an artist, the second person to do so was a plumber.”

The point is that true art is very hard to copy and the benefits often accrue to the originator of a concept. Godin’s argument was that artists are indispensable because what they create cannot be easily copied. This was consistent with his overall message from his current book Linchpin:  “Are you indispensable?”

Listening to inspiring speakers always fills my head with ideas, the challenge becomes how to leverage these amazing concepts when you are back in the daily chaos of the office.  For those who attended #taom: how are you going to apply these concepts to change the way you do business?

I was recently interviewed by a promotional industry publication on why I blog.

I started blogging in early 2006 as I wanted to experiment with a new medium as well as connect with people on a different level. So, 5 years later, I reflect on the what, why and how.

Why do you blog? How do you get the most out of your blog for the purposes you intend it to serve?

I have always enjoyed writing. Blogging gives me a creative outlet as well as platform to express ideas I have about the industry and business in general.

I use the blog to write about my philosophies as they relate to our business, RIGHTSLEEVE. I have found this to be a more genuine way to express an opinion as it comes across as more authentic than publishing a marketing brochure (there is room for this as well, it just serves a different purpose). Clients and prospects read our blog to learn about the human side of our company.

What advice would you give to companies looking to start a blog of their own?

(i) Have Fun

(ii) Be Human

(iii) Write it yourself

What is your overall impression of your blogging experience? Have you found it to be a successful marketing tool? Why or why not?

I have really enjoyed blogging because it has given me a way to connect with people on a whole new level. It is not a direct sales platform, rather it is a conversational platform as people will weigh in on what you write about and this starts a dialogue. I have met a number of new and interesting people via blogging (and other web 2.0 properties like Facebook, Twitter, etc). As with all solid relationships, a level of trust is established which can often lead to sales. As a result, blogging can be a wonderful, albeit indirect, sales tool. 

It has been a very successful marketing tool as it puts us into a smaller group of distributors that have taken the time to maintain a blog. I would guess that 5-10% of the promotional industry has a good blog and it’s always nice to be competing against a smaller number of people who are blogging than the majority that aren’t.

We also operate within a very competitive and commoditized industry with little to differentiate distributors from one another. The standard complaint about our industry is that “you can buy the same products from any distributor.” However, a blog is something that is unique to a company, something that can’t be shopped like a product SKU from a supplier catalog. Anything that is unique like this is a good thing in the industry as it helps sets you apart.

We have enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the founders of the Mesh Conference (Stuart, Rob, Mike, Mark and Mathew) since they launched “Canada’s Web 2.0 Conference”  five years ago. When I think about the most interesting promotions we have designed in our company’s history, the ones that stand out are those where a unique partnership exists between us and the client.

When done right, people love swag … especially at tech events like Mesh. It can shape a delegate’s experience of the conference as well as provide a great first impression. Who doesn’t like to be welcomed to an event with a well designed gift, particularly one that will have value long after the event?

Well, coming up with branded merchandise that will impress a discerning crowd is a daunting (though fun) task. With plenty of input from the Mesh team, we designed a survival kit to welcome attendees. Items ranged from the practical (peppermint gum) to the fun (poetry magnets) to the cheeky (condoms). Practical, fun, cheeky – exactly the makeup of this crowd. In addition to the survival kit, we produced T-shirts (that fit women too!), uniforms for the staff and scarves for the speakers.

After 5 years of designing swag for the Mesh team, we entered the 2009 merchandise into two industry award competitions – Image Awards (Canada) and Pyramid Awards (US). This past week, we won the Image Award for Canada and we were a finalist in the US competition.

A very special thank you to the Mesh team for being such a fun and creative group to work with. Now on to #mesh10!

Lyndsay and I presented to a group of camping professionals yesterday at the OCA Conference. The topic was “Youth Trends” and their impact on merchandise programs in the camp retail sector. As a successful merchandise program is an important branding opportunity for most camps, we wanted to shed some light on the key drivers behind teens’ and tweens’ buying decisions as it relates to fashion and clothing.

The presentation is available below:

In September 2005, my young family and I rented a cottage in rural France for a month. It happened at a hectic time in our personal and business lives and I felt that going away for an extended break would give me some much needed perspective.

At the time, I had fallen into the common entrepreneurial trap of no longer being able to see the forest for the trees. After 5 years of running the business, I was starting to lose steam. Some time off was what we needed, but not the average “let’s take the family to Disneyland” kind of trip; we wanted to get away and really enjoy life by living in another country, away from the normal tourist attractions and without any formal agenda.

For 4 weeks, we were able to replace our normally hectic routine with more leisurely pursuits: farmers’ markets in the morning, 2 hour lunches, siestas in the afternoon, wine tastings, long hikes in the surrounding countryside, home cooked dinner, capped off with 1 hour of Skyping back with the office in the evening. It was a fabulous way to spend the month.

While my mind was at rest, I was able to start thinking about my business in a different way. During my walks in the countryside, I started developing an internet strategy that went onto reshape our entire business model, ultimately allowing us to stand out within a crowded marketplace.

Thinking back to this experience, I was reminded of Bill Gates’ “think weeks” where the Microsoft founder locks himself up to do nothing but think for the week. In many ways, our experience in France was similar as it forced me to remove myself from the day to day minutiae so I could think big about the next stage of my business.

The critical lesson I learned from this experience is that busy entrepreneurs need to stop and smell the roses from time to time (or in our case, the lavender)!

This week I attended the PPAI Expo, the largest and longest running promotional products show in the world.

I was invited to present on how my experiences with social media have allowed RIGHTSLEEVE to grow and differentiate within this industry. I’d be reluctant to ever brand myself a “social media expert” (I am skeptical of the term), rather I like to think of myself of an industry entrepreneur that has dabbled in social media over the past 5 years and has learned a lot along the way, my trail scattered with a mix of failures and successes.

I have drawn inspiration from a number of people whose works I reference in this presentation. The links to their books  can be found here:

Chris Anderson The Long Tail

Clay Shirky Here Comes Everybody

Tara Hunt The Whuffie Factor

Joel Comm Twitter Power

Mitch Joel Six Pixels of Separation

2009 has been a learning experience, to put it mildly.

I have spoken to countless business owners across a range of industries about 2009 . Most people have indicated it was the worst year in their entire business careers. Industries are down on average 20-25%, bankruptcies and mergers abounded and I had to catch my breath when an industry colleague told me that his business was down 50% in 2009 …. 50%! 

All of this has given me pause to consider what we have learned in 2009 and how this will impact our business landscape in 2010. I have distilled this down to 3 thoughts.

 1. It’s not about the product, it’s about the process

The way companies have ordered promotional products has not changed much over the years. Most organizations place their orders through a promotional distributor who is responsible for the ideation and ultimate production of the order. I think this is an outdated process, one that will be replaced by more sophisticated web based processes that allow companies to procure their merchandise via simple to use order management systems. As a result of what technology enables, this will be available to companies of all sizes, not just the multi-million dollar programs.

Let me give an example. We were approached by an organization looking for a second opinion on their merchandise program. They had been working with an incumbent distributor who was doing a nice job in terms of ideas and execution. However, the organization’s real challenge was inventory risk and being stuck with product if it did not sell. We honed in on that specific challenge and offered our online retail store which collects orders across the entire organization and then produces the goods just in time, thereby eliminating the inventory risk. The product became secondary, shifting the focus to how the process could help solve their business challenges.

2. Social media is now mainstream

@techfanster tweeted the following which sums up exactly where we are in the social media space as of late 2009

If I hear “social media expert” once more I’m going to scream. Congrats on having twitter AND facebook… so does my mom. Really.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc are still enjoying the spotlight. Users have set up accounts in droves, web 2.0 conferences abound and “experts” have come out of the woodwork to educate the masses. People listened and started experimenting in a big way in 2009.

So, now what?

I see 2010 as being the year where we will see the true divide, specifically between the people who use these tools effectively to develop a strong community of friends, fans and customers vs the bandwagon jumpers who setup a Twitter profile only to spam people with product specials. My friend Bobby Lehew wrote a fabulous post about this very point, highlighting the difference between “social networking and social netbeing”. In the post, he suggests that having a social media presence takes a lot of work, just like networking in real life does. It’s just as hard to fake it online as it is in real life.

3. Differentiate or die.

The promotional industry shrunk by 20% in 2009 as buyers across North America scrutinized their budgets. Questions ranged from “do we really need to give polo shirts for this year’s tournament” to “are we spending our budget in the most efficient way possible?”

I believe that companies will be able to grow in 2010 by truly differentiating themselves from the competition. Focusing on a specific market segment, developing a proprietary technology, becoming the expert in a specific product category are all ways to accomplish this vs being the “I can get you anything” product generalist. As they say, “jack of all trades, master of none.”

Regardless of whether any of these predictions prove to be true, 2010 is certainly going to be an interesting year.

Please feel free to post your predictions for 2010 – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I recently read Geoff Smart’s Who: The A Method for Hiring - a comprehensive look at how to interview and ultimately hire top talent into your company. I synthesized the main steps in his book and have listed here to help others who are involved in the hiring process.

Hiring is never a perfect science, but the process can be made more effective by digging deeper into a candidate’s career history and asking the right questions. After years of interviewing candidates for positions at RIGHTSLEEVE, I found this book a very worthwhile read with many clear takeaway points.

Part 1: Establishing a Scorecard

I was recently interviewed by Promo35 – an industry group established on Facebook for distributors under the age of 35 (I just made it)! A lot of the questions were quite creative so I needed some time to respond with something thoughtful.

The contents of the interview are below:

1. What do you wish you knew back in your 20’s that you know now?

To not take business so seriously. Business can be very emotionally draining, especially when it’s your own company. As much as possible, emotion should be removed from business as it can lead to poor business decisions.

2. What one thing do you wish you would have done in your earlier days? What one thing do you wish you would have NOT done in your earlier days?

I wish I had spent more time delegating in my early days. While it was worthwhile for me to “learn” the business by doing everything at the beginning, I could have brought people on board earlier to help me grow the business. In terms of something I wish I had NOT done, I wish I had stopped micromanaging earlier (this is such a hard thing for an entrepreneur to do, but ultimately a “hands off” approach is less stressful for everyone involved). Once I learned to give people their space, productivity increased dramatically,

3. What piece of advice would you give the younger generation hoping to be in your shoes later in life?

Get out of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to innovate and zig when other people zag. It’s very easy to get caught up in the herd mentality, but it’s hard to build a truly great, long-term and sustainable company by simply playing by the rules (think Apple, Netflix, Zappos, Amazon). Keep reading and attending industry (and non-industry) conferences – this will keep you on the cutting edge when it comes to new trends.

4. What helps you get up and go to work in the morning?

I love what I do and I get a kick out of what we have built at RIGHTSLEEVE, especially the impact our web presence has had on our business over the years. Our clients are fun to work with and my team is very committed to creating a great company and sustaining our unique positioning in the marketplace. I
am very fortunate to be a part of such a positive work culture,

5. Name a vice you have?

Technology (I am a tech, social media, and web geek).

6. What would you stand up for no matter how much backlash came with it?

The value of a liberal arts education vs the constant focus on business and engineering degrees. (I graduated in 1996 after taking a 4 year undergrad in Arts. It helped lay the foundation for my entrepreneurial career as it taught me how to communicate, present and be very inquisitive).

7. Is the customer really always right? Please no politically correct responses; we want your honest opinion.

No. However, it makes good business sense to side with the customer as a quick resolution to a problem can work wonders for your reputation. If the customer is taking advantage of us, we will politely side with them the first time, but will choose to move on from the relationship after that point. There are too many good customers out there and it does not make sense to be working with a customer who is not aligned with our values.

8. What famous person has this world put up on a Pedestal that you believe does not deserve to be there?

A tie between Paris Hilton and Perez Hilton.

9. If all of a sudden you had control over the entire Promotional product industry what ONE thing would you change?

The lack of professionalism in the industry. I love the business of promotional products, but I think that this industry attracts too many people who lack professionalism and are looking for a quick buck. It will be hard to be seen as equals with the advertising industry (the industry we often try to compare ourselves to) until this changes. Having said this, the industry has made great strides in recent years to improve our image (via the PPAI, ASI, regional associations).

35. Your turn to ask a question, you can ask any question you want, something you want the readers to think about and answer for themselves

What role will the distributor play in 10 years?

On Nov 12, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to speak with one of my entrepreneurial heroes, Michael Dell. This was in association with our winning the Dell SMB Excellence Award (Canada) for our use of technology in our business.

I vividly remember my first computer purchase as an 18 year old student heading off to university. I struggled out of the Dell showroom in 1992 (they had one back then) with 2 huge boxes which housed the monitor and CPU. When I mentioned this Michael Dell, he jokingly commented how they have been able to reduce the size of the boxes over the years.

The video of the conversation can be seen below