Seth Godin in the Digital Agora

I’ve been working on a digital startup. This is an unusual client for me, but one I was eager to take on. When a young women said to me in a meeting recently, “you’re like my grandmother” regarding my insistence on carrying around the actual newspaper, I knew something had to be done. It’s time to stop wondering what the kids are up to. My trendspotter gene was activated. I was ready to infiltrate a subculture…which happens to be the mass culture.

How is it so far? Baffling, inspiring, courageous, naive (sometimes), and dynamic. It’s been exactly as I’d hoped: an immersion into the future of commerce.

This startup client of mine is working with the best programming company around. Pivotal Labs is a pioneer and leader in what’s termed “agile” programming. This is a development style that waits for no man. The offices are a whirlwind of activity…because my brain likes to leap backwards in time thousands of years I tend to see it as a marketplace of the ancient world, something Marco Polo might have encountered on his travels. The clients working on their laptops, grabbing a coffee, eating breakfast or lunch in the common space, pacing the floor, are working on some of the most promising businesses of the next 5 years. The programmers are appropriately techie–all t-shirts and bare feet, playing ping-pong and eating bowls of cereal between epic bouts of intense focus.

As if Pivotal wasn’t techie enough, they share offices with the “#1 startup accelerator in the world” (from their website), Techstars. These young netpreneurs are preparing for a one shot pitch to a roomful of venture capitalists. Three months of mentoring and hard work are coming to a close next week and the pressure is on. Some of them are probably sleeping at the offices.

So, it was no surprise to me in this electric atmosphere of innovation and expectation, that I was passed a note while on the phone that read: “Seth Godin is speaking in the common space now.” I jumped off the call (rudely…sorry, Peter Spear) and went to hear this mammoth of marketing speak. There, in front of the motley crew of hoepfuls, he taught a Marketing 101 course that was perfectly tailored to the audience. He started by tackling the main issue with tact and honesty: “You will be judged,” he said of the presentations they would give in a matter of days, “you may not like it, but you have to accept it.” And then he proceeded to tell them what they could do to improve their chances of being judged favorably.

I liked best his response to a young engineer’s question which divided marketing out from the process of building the product. “Well, you see, I don’t think about marketing like most people,” he said, “Marketing is the way your company makes people feel.” I love that. So simple. So true. So Seth.

Thank you digital world for being the great web of connections and interactions and opportunities I wanted you to be.