Mark Schaefer on How to Get Your Ideas to Spread
One of my marketing heroes is 10X best-selling author, speaker, university professor, and marketing futurist Mark Schaefer. Last year I had the privilege of interviewing Mark about the future of marketing and my favorite book of his, ‘Cumulative Advantage.’
Some of the topics covered in our interview included:
How to make yourself more available for breakthrough moments
How to improve your market timing
How to create a Sonic Boom for launching ideas.
How Mark is able to see ahead of trends
What will be the next Marketing Rebellion
To give you a sense of Mark’s perspective, let me offer these four highlights from our interview:
Finding Your “Ikigai”
Mark and I discussed the Japanese concept of Ikigai - Your meaning and purpose in life, or what gets you up in the morning. Mark even shared with me his personal “Ikigai.” He says that for him, it’s important to balance work that he enjoys with work that has lasting meaning. According to Mark, he has arrived at a place in his career where he can “send the elevator back down.”
“So many people have helped me, and I can be helpful, generous, share my experiences, and nurture people. Every week, someone tells me that I changed their life or changed their business. I think you’d be a lucky person to hear that one time in your whole life, and I hear it every week. And that’s what really keeps me going today.”
Making Yourself More Available to Breakthrough Moments
In ‘Cumulative Advantage,’ Mark outlines five stages for achieving momentum. So, Mark and I started by discussing the first stage - the initial advantage. He shared a quote by researcher Franz Johansen who said, “ Every success starts with a click moment - a collision of people and ideas and circumstances that creates your one small advantage.”
But, just how do we make ourselves more available to click moments? This is where it got interesting. According to Mark, you don’t need to have an Ivy League education, celebrity connections or a million dollars in the bank - which is good news for the rest of us. In fact, Mark believes that behind every person and every successful business, there’s something random. “You just have to be aware of the opportunities and advantages when they come to you,” he told me.
This was true in Mark’s life. In the 90s, Mark said he felt stuck in his marketing job at a Fortune 100 company. The internet was just beginning, so he went to his boss and asked to get an AOL account. Although his boss at the time thought the $9 a month was a waste of money, he ended up agreeing, and Mark became the first person in his company with access to the Internet. A couple of years later, when the company decided to launch a global e-business initiative, Mark became the natural choice to lead it. Mark’s initial advantage was that nobody else in the company had his level of experience when a major shift took place in the business world. This initiated an entirely new trajectory for his career.
Initiating a Sonic Boom
From there, Mark explained that once you have an initial advantage, you can leverage it to build momentum. But then you need something else. According to Mark, “When you launch something new, you don’t need a one-year plan or even a six-month plan. You need to put everything you’ve got behind it all at once over a short period of time.” Mark refers to this concept as a “Sonic Boom.”
To illustrate the point, Mark shared how he leverages influencers to promote his new books. Mark explained that before his books are publically available, he sends out personalized gift boxes that include an autographed copy of his new book, a personalized gift and a handwritten note to specific individuals. If he does a good job, the influencers will appreciate the gesture and help spread the word about his book to their social media audiences, podcast listeners and newsletter subscribers. The social proof is what creates the momentum that starts the buzz that generates positive reviews and gets things going, thus initiating a “Sonic Boom.”
The Ultimate Marketing Strategy
Mark and I had one more important exchange before our interview ended. He responded to a question by hinting at something he was thinking about deeply at the time. I now understand that at the time of our interview, Mark was writing his latest bestseller called, ‘Belonging to the Brand.’ Mark shared with me how having a community of people who trust you and want to support your success is the ultimate form of marketing.
Mark said, “If you have a community, you don't need advertising; you don't need SEO. You've got a group of people who love you, support you, and will buy from you.” What an asset for any person or brand hoping to see their ideas spread!
Please consider watching my full interview with Mark Schaefer for more insights on the future of Marketing:
Work with us.
Looking for help building momentum for your ideas and products? AH Marketing can help you generate more interest and demand. We’ll work with you to:
Position your Company and Products to Win in the Marketplace
Develop a Compelling Message that Resonates with Your Audiences
Become Ubiquitous Across Your Industry
Increase Demand and Sales
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