When you see me driving around town, and it seems like I’m talking to myself, or laughing at my own joke, or perhaps even crying in what looks like a senseless manner, I’m probably listening to a podcast. And a presentation on the other side of the city yesterday allowed me the opportunity to listen to the full, almost 90 minute, unedited conversation that Krista Tippett had with Seth Godin on her December 4 edition of On Being (if you don’t subscribe to it, do it after you finish reading this.)
In an examination of art, industry, and the continuing evolution of modern business, with topics ranging from Andrew Carnegie to Bob Dylan, with the Monkees thrown in for good measure, the core, the essence of the conversation comes down to this: the internet allows each of us the opportunity to become an artist. Make something new, and make it good (a piece of information, an article, a video, a song, a graphic novel, whatever). Show it to 10 people. If it’s relevant, they’ll pass it along to 10 more. If it’s not relevant, you’ve learned something about your art, and you make something else. And so on, and so on, and so on. A community of artists.
This is not a new conversation – I can personally remember having this conversation with my contemporaries as long as 20 years ago. What’s different now, I think, is that this “artistic” energy, this organic growth, is seen and expected by creators and entrepreneurs of all types. Software and mobile developers. Bio-scientists. Doctors, lawyers, financial advisers, contractors, engineers, chocolatiers. We don’t work for a corporation for 30 years and then retire anymore. And, even if we do, we yearn to carve out something of our own. This feels unique to this time. Let’s embrace it. Let’s run with it. If you have something to make, make it. Share it. If you don’t, or not at this time, or whatever, then enjoy something that someone else has made and share it.
True marketing happens when you share something with somebody that adds value to their lives. Make. Share. Repeat.
