Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Daydream Believers

What should you look for in any potential employee these days? Assuming you have several candidates with similar qualifications, try these:

1) Demonstrable, insatiable curiosity. (" You've been where? You've done what?")

2) Healthy ego, self-motivated, ambitious ("You want my job? Next year? Fantastic.")

3) Emotional maturity (no fear of saying: "Sorry", "I made a mistake", "I need help", "I dropped the ball")

Seth Godin expands on points 1 and 2 in today's blogpost on what he looks for in a marketer. Unfortunately, such characteristics are extremely rare. They've been beaten out of most people by years spent studying and/or working in regimented environments. Businesses have been focused on production since the industrial revolution. Obedient workers with uniform skills were required for successful mass production. But now production is being automated and outsourced.

Now we need the complete opposite. We need more imagineers. We need people who instinctively question the way things have always been done, who have developed skills that are unique and specialized, who can see alternatives and gray areas. People whose unusual life choices and resumés clearly demonstrate their capacity to think outside the box because they live outside the box.

Many North American businesses are fighting to survive in the face of intense global competition. Mediocre offerings don't stand a chance. The only way out is a spectacular, bold, confident leap of faith. That requires minds that are capable of thinking, not just doing.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

iContact versus Constant Contact

Here's an update to the very popular post I wrote a year ago about my in-depth comparison of the two most popular email marketing services. Basically, I wanted to compare iContact to ConstantContact.

I'm happy to report that iContact is now # 1 according to the 2008 report by Top Ten Reviews. So now there's really no reason not to go with them. More importantly, I'M still very happy with them.