This is an audio program. Listen and/or download here.

A few lessons from this program

Wouldn’t you agree that we’re in an ask economy? You can’t give blogger money to write about you, for example, but if you know how to ask, she’ll write about you for free?

Since knowing how to ask can be more valuable than money, you need to learn how to ask. Here’s some advice on that from Seth Godin, author of Tribes and founder of Squidoo.

At least once a day I get an email asking me for some ridiculous selfish thing that someone wants.

And then they write under it, as if it excuses them, “you can’t blame a girl for asking.” Well actually, I can. And I will.

If you ask someone to do something that’s selfish–for you–they won’t. And not only won’t they, they’ll never forgive you for asking, because you made them really uncomfortable.

The asking I’m talking about is equivalent to asking someone over for a cocktail party, asking someone to go out to dinner with you. Those are things that help both of you–not just help you.

There are lots of times someone will send me a note saying, “I’m going to be in town, can I take you out for a sandwich? I’d love to pick your brain for an hour.”

No. You can’t. I’m sorry. I don’t know you. I’m really busy. I’m not good at meetings. I hate meetings. I don’t even like sandwiches. No.

Because it’s not about me at that point, it’s about you. And I’d like to be generous, but there are too many people for everyone to be generous to.

So, when you’re asking for money for your charity. When you’re asking for a vote for your political candidate. When you’re asking for someone to spend time with you, you gotta think really hard about why they ought to do it, that has nothing to do with you.

This is an edited except from a program you can download here, on Mixergy.

What do you think of this video? Give your feedback below or use this Twitter link.

Here are more videos from Seth Godin on Mixergy.

As entrepreneurs working on a startup, shouldn’t we keep trying to make as much money as we can?

That’s the question posed to Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo and best selling author of ten books, including Tribes. Here’s an edited transcript of his response.

I don’t know anybody who says, “I want to make a big business so I can make money.”

I’m pretty sure there are people like that, but in my experience, the people who make big businesses and make money, are passionate about something. They’re trying to change something for the better. They’re trying to make an impact on a marketplace, or on individuals, or on users, or on a community.

And that is where business success comes from.

So the guys who started 1-800-GOT-JUNK didn’t say, “we can start anything we want, what should we start?” What they saw was an opportunity in the marketplace and they became evangelical about it. They became passionate about it.

They understood that they could empower people to start local businesses and make money from it.  That they could make people’s lives more efficient.

And by becoming passionate about their cause, then they could find people who were willing to talk about it. They could create a message that spreads.

And so if you say, “there’s a marketplace out there, how do I make money from it?”  well I’m not surprised at all that you can’t get people to follow you. But if, on the other hand, your goal is to help people–even if it’s to help them make money–there’s a message there to spread.

And it is heretical, because the status quo message is, “Go to work. Do your job. Go home. Die.”

Like this series? Click here to promote it on twitter!

It’s hard to get the first members of a community. So why not bribe people to join? Some of the past Mixergy interviews suggest that it’s the way other communities start.

Here’s a response to that issue from Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo and author of Tribes:

Let’s be really clear on the simantecs. A “bribe” is when you give somebody money to do something that is against their nature or against their fiduciary duty. When you give a congressperson money to vote against her constituents.

I don’t think bribes are a good idea. I think that recognition and rewards are a great idea.

If you go to any spiritual institution, there’s always some layman up on the podium who’s being recognized for doing something. A friend of mine worked for the pope of the Eastern Orthodox Church. They had a brand new building in Istanbul.

He walked in and there are pictures of all the popes who’ve been there before, lining the walls. And right over the guy’s shoulder is a more modern one. He says, “Who’s that?”

The Pope said, “Oh, that’s Dr. So and So from New Jersey. He gave us the money to build the building.”

I’m not sure he did it so he could get his oil painting in there. I don’t think it’s a bribe. But I think it’s recognition.

What tribe leaders understand is that you need to treat different people differently. And that different people are going to contribute differently. And that recognizing them makes perfect sense.

The other thing that you notice is that tokens and prizes and rewards are valued far out of proportion to their costs. Because people don’t do it for the ball of cotton from China. They do it because being recognized is one the things humans want more than anything else.

Like this series? Click here to tell your friends (and me) on twitter!

This is the second of 4 Mixergy videos from Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo and bestselling author. In this section, he talks about what to do when you launch a business/tribe/etc and no one cares enough to show up.

Here’s a transcript of what Seth said in the the video:

At the beginning of the campaign the only people traveling with Barack Obama were a driver and a photographer.

Impossible to imagine today.

Every movement  starts with nobody but the leader.

When I started my  blog, it had 3 readers a day. It didn’t have a lot of readers at the beginning. 3 readers. Then 4 readers. Then 6 readers. Then 9 readers.

The same opportunity is there for everybody. It’s easy to start now. You used to need a million dollars to go on television. Now you need twelve dollars to go online.

But just because it’s easy to start doesn’t mean it always works. Because lots of other people are starting. What it means is, the people who push through the dip and get over it, and make it to the end, thrive, even though they only put in 12 bucks.

Like this series? Click here to tell your friends (and me) on twitter!

This is the first of 4 Mixergy videos from Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo and bestselling author. In this section, he talks about why and how you can build a tribe. Check in over the next 4 weeks for other big ideas that will help you leave your mark on the world.

Here’s a paraphrased summary of the discussion:

Andrew: What’s the point of having a tribe?

Seth: A tribe is nothing but a tactic, a method, an approach to getting change to occur. And that change could be growing your business, or getting elected or making the world a safer place. All of those things now require a tribe.

Andrew: Why didn’t popular moguls like Sam Walton and Ted Turner have tribes?

Seth: The world has changed fundamentally because a whole bunch of things that used to be critically important aren’t any more.

Darrin Stephens from bewitched got rich with Larry Tate because he bought enough TV time, to interrupt enough people, to sell enough stuff, to make enough money, to interrupt more people, to buy TV time. And around and around it goes.

Andrew: Do your tribe members need to communicate with each other?

Seth: People like talking to each other. We evolved to want to do that. So one of the most highly leveraged and powerful ways to grow a tribe is to connect people to each other. But if you just have that, you have nothing but a coffee shop.

On top of that, there needs to be a message from you, the leader, about where you want to go–about the change that you want to make in your world.

You need a mission, a movement, a place that people want to get to.

Andrew: How did you build your tribe?

Seth: I am not the poster child for how to do this properly. And everyone does it differently.

What I offered members of my tribe is a vocabulary. So if you were in a meeting and said, “purple cow” or “meatball sundae” other people who got it would immediately understand what you were saying.

So what I did was give you a way to communicate with those people.

Like this series? Click here to tell your friends (and me) on twitter!