Seth Godin provides an important reality check for marketeers and businesses when considering exploring and exploiting the mass market appeal of modern media channels.

This article was first published in Anthill’s fifth print edition, way back in 2004. Since then, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson has continued to make a long and lasting impression on the Anthill team. His fourth book, Wombat Selling (published after this article), is mandatory reading among new members of the crew.

He worked with Edward De Bono teaching people to think, but Michael Hewitt-Gleeson has moved on from selling hats. He studied under George Gallup, but is now creating, rather than measuring, ‘word of mouth’. He has three best-selling books behind him, the latest of which, The X10 Memeplex, urges companies to break from the concept of absolute truth and logic and, in the process, grow their business ten fold. Paul Ryan reports.

Hewitt-Gleeson has forged a 25-year career out of school-of-thought instruction. But it’s not all about helping people make piles of money. He has a subversive agenda to change the way business is done. No more peering through the fog at incremental growth and ad hoc targets. The X10 Memeplex (Penguin, 2003) sheds light on hidden pathways and opens up possibilities for previously ‘illogical’ growth.

Paul Ryan: In a snapshot, what are the three main ideas that you’ve written about and what thought processes led you to your current book, The X10 Memeplex?

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson: There are two strands of thought that I’ve written about in the past (Software for the Brain and Newsell) and these are brought together in The X10 Memeplex.

Software for the Brain talks about the brain as a necktop computer. It’s less of a metaphor and more of a reality, since the brain is a deeply digital environment. The software we’re using is 2,500 years old – including programming from the church, the Middle Ages, the Greek software of Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, the concept of absolute truth and logic, which was distributed around the world with missionary zeal. Just as we need to upgrade our desktop computers, we also need to upgrade our necktop computer. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last 25 years with the School of Thinking that I founded with Edward De Bono, and our lessons have reached over 70 million people worldwide.

That’s one strand – the thinking strand. The other strand, which I explored in Newsell, is the selling/leadership strand. Selling and leadership have to do with behavior and particularly influencing the behavior of other people. You can use coercion and force, which is an inefficient method. The other way to influence a person’s behavior is to influence their thinking. If you want people to change their behavior, whether it is in a leadership/social context or a commercial/selling context, you need to influence the way they see things. So that’s why there’s such a strong link between thinking and selling.

My subversive agenda is to get people thinking far and wide. If I can show a link between developing the thinking skills of employees and increasing the revenues of a company, it will help me teach people to think and grow.

What is The X10 Memeplex?

It’s a whole new way of thinking about the concept of memes. Memes are like idea viruses. They are the only replicators, other than genes, to be discovered in science. Just as genes are digital entities that are very good at getting themselves replicated over long periods of evolutionary time (they design humans and elephants and sunflowers as mechanisms enabling self-replication), memes are ideas or arrangements of information that are very good at getting themselves replicated from brain-to-brain. Some memes – some idea viruses – are more likely than others to be replicated by word-of-mouth. So you can see that there is a very strong link between the mechanics of word-of-mouth and the science of selling and marketing.

The X10 Memeplex seems geared towards growth in business. Did you specifically have growth in mind?

Well, that gets back to my subversive agenda. The thing that obviously appeals to business is growth. If you want business to adopt a new way of doing things, growth is a good cover. The X10 Memeplex introduces a matrix of memes (a memeplex) to replace the old meme for business growth – the belief (grounded in logic) that 10 per cent growth per annum is acceptable. Why should companies only aspire to achieve 10 per cent growth? The X10 Memeplex is about setting new goals and infecting organisations with the belief that one thousand per cent growth is acceptable. It is possible to grow a business X10.

But there’s much more to it than growth. X10 could be multiplying anything by 10. It could be environmental issues. The idea of X10 is to accelerate the process of attaining a goal. The cognitive reason for X10 is to escape patterns of the brain. Habitually, we look at things a certain way and most of the lateral thinking techniques encourage thinking outside the square. Telling people to do that is one thing. Giving them the tools to do it is another. X10 is a deliberate cognitive tool to go beyond logic.

The part of the book I found most helpful was when you say: close your eyes and think about how you measure your business and think about growing it X10, and then think about how you’re going to get there.

Logic is moving forward. But logical growth – say magazine subscriptions increasing by 10 per cent – won’t get you to where you want to go. What we do with lateral thinking is take a quantum leap and visualise the X10, then build steps backwards to where you are now. It’s a bit like the formulation of a riddle. What is brown and sticky? That question sets up a logical pathway. When I give you the answer – a stick – it suddenly deposits you on a different pathway. When you work your way back from a stick to the question, a new pathway becomes clear. That’s how humour works. It’s those two patterns suddenly connecting for the first time. With a joke the connection is usually temporary, but with insights the results are often more permanent. You were invited to Australia as an InnovationXchange Network Visiting International Fellow because of your thinking on innovation, what’s your view and how did it evolve?

What’s an example of an effective meme?

Cafe latte – which you’re drinking right now – a drink which consists mostly of water, a bit of hot milk and some crushed beans. Why has that particular concoction spread so far and wide compared with other concoctions, like hot chocolate? Trying to understand that is what memetic thinking is all about. This has all come together in what I call Darwinian marketing, which is important for two reasons. Traditionally, the way sales and marketing people have been taught to sell has had a strong religious base. The training programs, the TAFE programs, the seminars have all been American with a strong religious, evangelical drive – they are based on black and white concepts, such as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. This is what has given selling and marketing such a bad name in the marketplace. What I’m trying to do is to introduce science into these areas and show that science, which is less about exhortation, bullying and evangelising and more about effectiveness and resolve, is another way to go.

What’s a tangible example of popular marketing and sales techniques having an evangelical base?

In order to come up with a new idea you have to see what the old idea is. When I was studying in the late ’70s – I was based in New York at the time – all the material that had been written on sales training, since the early 1920s, was based on religious concepts such as, ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’; the old Aristotelian concept. In other words, there’s such a thing as truth.

‘I have the truth,’ just like the religious concept. ‘My religion is right, I’m right, you’re wrong. I will now convert the sinner and close the sale. I will convince you and show you what you need.’ Those early models of selling were very much salesman driven. The salesman came with gift of the gab and all the manipulative and bullying techniques. ‘If you don’t get this, you’re going to hell.’

These strong religious concepts came out of the American south where the relatively unsophisticated, uneducated market was growing quite rapidly and people travelled door-to-door using these techniques to sell bibles and vacuum cleaners, etcetera. Many of the authors of these sales training works were religious preachers, like Norman Vincent Peel, Zig Zigler, Reverend Schuller, and so on. This uniquely American pseudo-religious evangelism developed, which linked the idea of being saved and going to heaven with making a lot of money at the same time. I used my PhD to challenge this model. Over the last 20 years, I’ve provided an alternative base and a softening of that idea.

You mentioned that you worked with Edward De Bono.

He was a professor of medicine at Cambridge University when we met back in 1974, trying to get his thinking program off the ground. He and I started the School of Thinking. He was still at Cambridge and agreed to contribute the syllabus. I was based in New York talking to corporations, in a sense selling De Bono. I undertook the first PhD in lateral thinking. De Bono was my tutor. George Gallup, who invented market research and the Gallup poll at Princeton, was my examiner.

What does the future hold for Michael Hewitt-Gleeson?

I’m planning my seventh book, which will be called, Aspire: How to Climb the Ladder. It builds on Newsell, Software for your Brain and The X10 Memeplex, looking at how people have successfully climbed the ladder to achieve their ambition. Out of the three sectors of society – the very well heeled and the disadvantaged – it’s the middle section, the aspirational section, which is really the engine of growth in the economy and society and philosophy. That’s who I want to help.

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson will be sharing his insights as they relate to Internet marketing at the X10 Seminar (Multiply Your Net Income by 10… Using the Power of Internet Marketing) on 3 – 5 September, Hyatt Coolum, Coolum, Australia. The seminar will feature eight of the world’s most successful marketers, who will discuss innovative ideas, strategies and tactics for building and growing a successful online business.

For further, information, visit www.x10seminar.com

Source: ABC News Radio 29/04/2010 (mp3)

The legal line on intellectual property is one thing, but what’s with that bit about shopkeppers having their back turned for longer periods while they hunt for the right packet?

So it turns out that not all flacks for big tobacco are as smooth and assured as Nick Naylor, the silky tobacco lobbyist played by Aaron Eckhart in the 2005 movie Thank You For Smoking.

If you want to tap into a real-time stream of thoughts and links being shared by some of Australia’s leading business minds, check out http://twitter.com/#/list/AnthillMagazine/anthill-mag-contributors.

If you like the list you can follow it or, of course, individual tweeters contained within.

Screen capture of original eBay listing below, via 2oceansvibe.com [click to enlarge].

If you’re one of the millions who have caught the social media wave in the past few years, there is a decent chance that you or someone you know felt pressured to climb aboard for fear of being left behind or mocked by the cool kids as being out of touch.

It’s a reasonable concern, especially for business people who have enough on their plate without feeling compelled to microupdate and engage at all hours of the day and night with whomever is up for a chinwag on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Skype, blog comments, instant message, email and so on.

The truth is, depending on how efficiently you manage your time and how much of it others demand of you, the number of online platforms in which you can actively participate is quite limited. “Actively participate” does not mean merely broadcasting your blog’s RSS feed. It means taking the time to make connections, to discuss ideas, to help others – to share the love.

It is perhaps inevitable then that the rise of social media has been accompanied by a counter-trend towards users abandoning it. Last year, when Twitter was the hot breakout platform, research revealed that 60% of Twitter users quit within the first month. Of course, that group was dominated by tyre-kickers, but it serves to demonstrate that people will only commit time to activities they think will return them a net benefit over time.

In October last year, Miley Cyrus used one popular social media platform (YouTube) to announce her decision to quit another social media platform (Twitter) by posting a video of her rapping about the reasons, which included how Twitter had reduced her to talking about her pimples. A good enough reason, I think we all agree. In fact, with notable exceptions, entertainment celebrities have proved particularly fickle when it comes to Twitter (see this list of celebrity departures).

The new heresy

Then again, Seth Godin doesn’t tweet. The Twitter account for one of the world’s most influential marketing brains looks like this:

A maven marketer not on Twitter? Scandalous!

Here’s Godin explaining to LeWeb and Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur why he doesn’t use Twitter or Facebook.

Godin identifies the same time/focus equation as the reason why he doesn’t allow comments on his blog – a heretical decision in the eyes of many digital media commentators. But for Godin, it’s about being the best he can be at what he does best rather than trying to be everything to everyone, everywhere.

Sharing this sentiment, popular US cartoonist Hugh MacLeod recently tweeted his decision to deactivate comments on his blog, gapingvoid.com, and up stumps on Facebook. He believed these channels were distracting him from doing what he does best, which happens to put food on his table.

Blogging is holding me back…

It’s one thing to remove the ability for readers to leave comments on your blog. It’s quite another to do away with your blog entirely. New York-based software entrepreneur Joel Spolsky recently wrote his final article for Inc. in which he revealed his decision to close his popular blog, Joel on Software, which he built up as a way to market his company, Fog Creek Software.

“A decade ago, I started Joel on Software, a blog that put my company on the map. But as the business matures, I’ve come to realise that blogging is holding me back,” Spolsky wrote.

He went on to explain that the blog had already done everything it could for his business and, in order to take Fog Creek Software forward, he needed to dedicate the time and focus he had hitherto devoted to blogging to the evolution of his business and more personal connections.

Many of these prominent entrepreneurs who have chosen to opt out of elements of social media subscribe to Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans philosophy.

Kelly contends that in a Long Tail economy where everyone can create and attention is the real currency, a creator “needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living”. The idea is that you are better off focusing your energies on creating something remarkable that will appeal to a hard core of 1,000 true fans who will do almost anything for you and buy everything from you (think Apple fanboys).

Achieving this – achieving success – requires great discipline and focus. It also requires that you prioritise what is important at any given time and, crucially, know what is less important and therefore a distraction. Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

Delete, delete, delete

Chris Brogan, author of the bestselling book Trust Agents, makes adept use of social media, especially through Twitter and his blog. Yet, as he wrote in a post earlier this year, he’s thinking of deleting his LinkedIn account because he’s not getting any value from LinkedIn – because he doesn’t put enough time and effort into nurturing his network there.

He went on:

When I look at it, I’ve got too many points of contact:

• Google Voice / Phone
• Email (primary)
• Email (for New Marketing Labs )
• Email (a private account)
• Contact Form
• Blog comments
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Google Wave
• My Blog
• Tons of other social networks
• In person at events

Here’s the rough order of which ones are making my life better:

• Twitter – serendipity, friendship, some business
• Contact form – lots of business
• Google Wave – where I’m planning my future
• Blog comments – lots more interaction than email
• Email – once I sort it, some business, and relationship-building
• Facebook – a little bit. I like feeling personal there.

So what do I do? Connecting is part of my job. It’s how business happens. It’s how I stay connected and accessible. And yet, I think I’m too connected. That’s a lot of points of contact. Think about manning all those phones, so to speak. Think about managing all those interactions in all those various formats across all those various tools.

What are you sacrificing?

Social media is great, but your first responsibility is to be great at what you do. In the race to connect online – to attract more followers and friends than the next person, to share with the world everything you’re thinking and doing – you’re adding to the noise. And this might very well be adding value for your respective networks.

But in doing so, what are you sacrificing?

Social networks (virtual and physical) are powerful platforms for tapping the wisdom and greatness of others and sharing your own, but greatness requires focus, and focus means dedicating sufficient time to working on what you’re good at in order to be great.

You might have one million online “friends”, but do you have 1,000 true fans? If not, it’s worth considering what you might need to give up in order to get them.

Paul Ryan is Editor of Anthill Magazine. Follow him on Twitter (if that’s your thing): @pauldryan

The camera trains on the finish line as the other competitors cross, lingers there for several awkward seconds, then the director, who dearly wants to broadcast the winner’s celebration, dutifully crosses to the athlete who is labouring around the final bend.

The crowd cheers. It’s a stirring affirmation of the Olympic spirit, a celebration of participation over failure. There’s a lump in your throat. Then your mate sitting on the couch beside you says, “What are you smiling at? You’d make this bloke look like Steve Austin!”

True enough. But how would the average man fair in a 40-yard foot race against professional NFL players? This remarkable multi-layered video reveals the startling reality.

Hat tip: Scott Handsaker

Exhibit A: NGO Solidarités International and creative agency BDDP Unlimited marked the occasion of World Water Day with this innovative ambient display in the heart of Paris. These Aquascript water messages, designed to build awareness about the dangers of unclean drinking water globally, turned heads for a full week in the City of Light.

Agence BDDP & Fils
Directeur 
Artistique
 : 
David
 Derouet
Concepteur-
Rédacteur
 :
 Emmanuel 
de 
Dieuleveult

Production COSA
Réalisation : LES JANDJ

The move was foreshadowed in a searing blog post by Union Square Ventures VC and Twitter investor Fred Wilson, who chastised these third-party developers for “filling holes in the Twitter product” rather than building killer apps.

In the video below, Loren Feldman from 138media delivers the unvarnished version as he sees it (as always).

As part of an environmental awareness campaign, the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen is offering a free meal to guests who produce energy on one of the hotel’s iPhone-monitored, generator-enabled exercise bikes.

The world-first initiative, due to commence on 19 April and run for a year, will award a 26 euro meal voucher to any guest who produces 10 watt hours of electricity (approximately 15 minutes cycling for non-Lance Armstrong types).

Hotel management expects the vast majority of guests who take up the offer will be regular business travellers engaging in their normal fitness regimes, with only the odd guest motivated specifically by the free meal. Cycling is big in the Danish capital, with around 36% of the population riding to work every day.

In a similar ­- though more austere – initiative, inmates at Tent City Jail in Phoenix, Arizona are now required to pedal an exercise bike if they want to watch television.

Joe Arpaio, known to some as “America’s Toughest Sheriff”, launched the “Pedal Vision” programme after learning that over half the inmates were overweight.

The TV room in the prison now contains an exercise bike that, when pedalled, powers the 19-inch TV. Only inmates who have agreed to participate in Pedal Vision are permitted in the TV room.

According to Arpaio:

“If an inmate slows down and fails to pedal fast enough, an audible noise sounds off to warn inmates that the TV is shutting down. Peer pressure will have them pedalling, at least right up to the commercial breaks.”

The initiative was first launched with women inmates, who were said to be more receptive to the idea.

The idea of harnessing kinetic energy produced by humans to generate electricity is far from new. In 2008 we noted a nightclub in London that was harvesting energy from its dance floor sufficient to power 60% of its needs. And earlier this year we wrote about Pavogen Slabs, a UK invention that captures footpath energy and feeds it into the local grid.

Photo: Kelley Mari

Human beings are more inclined to experience happiness when striving for a goal rather than having attained it. Hence the importance of work to our psyche, as Alain de Botton outlined so eloquently at the TEDGlobal conference held in the UK last year.

As illustrated in this talk from the Ted Conference held in California earlier this year, Nobel Prize-winning behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman has an intimate understanding of the complexity of experience and the tyranny that memory wields over the perpetual present.

It’s thought-provoking subject matter with profound implications for the way we perceive and pursue happiness, both in ourselves and with those around us.

Posting the Business Card Ninja earlier in the week prompted us to revisit an all-time favourite Anthill TV clip, Your Business Card is Crap! And, of course, who could forget the classic business card scene from the movie American Psycho?

Extending the goodness, Anthill commenter Laneth Sffarlenn flagged this little gem featuring Professor Himonya, star of the cult Japanese DVD series, ‘How to make people angry.’

If you’ve ever attended a networking event and been introduced to someone who spends the next few minutes looking over your shoulder at who else he/she could be talking to, know that it could be worse. You could have Professor Himonya’s undivided attention.

Patrick Jean from the French SFX studio OneMoreProd created this video of Manhattan being destroyed by the world’s favourite 1980s 8-Bit video game sprites.

Awesome effects. But do you recognise them all?

Via Mashable / Gizmodo