#46: The science of who you hang out with, learning with 1% of your time, selling a platform, and your agenda for Boston next week.
Good morning!
A special welcome to everyone who's here from my session at INBOUND this past week, Find an Enemy, which was basically my excuse for showing Braveheart on a massive screen at a business conference.
(If you're on this list, you'll receive a copy of the eBook from that presentation, and in the meantime, please reply here if you'd like a copy of the slide deck.)
In this edition #46* of the World's Best Newsletter:
1. Modern workers spend less than 1% learning - how to prioritize your time
2. The neuroscience of who you hang out with
3. Event Recap: Boston Content Went Inbound
4. What does 10,000 mean?
5. Why selling a platform is so, damn, hard.
6. Your agenda for next week in Boston:
7. Quote of the week
*Yeah, I omitted #45. Symbolically. Moving on...
1. Modern workers spend less than 1% learning - how to prioritize
If you don't currently follow Beth Comstock, Vice Chair at GE, on LinkedIn, I highly recommend you do so. There's a good reason she's garnered 660,000 followers (and I thought my 48,000 was excessive...) as she's constantly sharing helpful articles like this HBR piece.
In short: The modern worker has very little time for learning - less than 1% of their time. The HBR article lays out a helpful 2x2 grid to figure out which skills are the most important for you (high-utility) while being the fastest to pick up (low time-to-learn.)
A totally nerdy way to approach learning, and totally critical to staying relevant.
2. The neuroscience of who you hang out with
This neuroscience research is fascinating and obvious (aren't the best studies, though?)
The research found that "when two people are in each other's company, their brain waves will begin to look nearly identical... This means the people you hang out with actually have an impact on your engagement with reality beyond what you can explain. And one of the effects is you become alike."
Sounds super science-fictiony, I know, but we see this all the time:
"Buzzkills bring people's moods down; fast-talkers cause the pace of conversation to pick up; comedians get people feeling light, or funny."
Who do you most want to emulate? Go hang out with them.
Which means I need to go figure out what Lady Gaga's up to.
3. Event Recap: Boston Content Went Inbound
We had a fantastic opportunity to welcome OG co-founder Arestia Rosenberg back to the Boston Content stage this past week for a special event near the Inbound conference. She was joined by Anuj Adhiya of Growthhackers and Daniel Waas from GotoWebinar. Read this event recap and make sure you're on the list for future Boston Content events.
Rumor has it we're throwing a gala this winter (if my co-executive director lets me, that is...)
4. What does 10,000 mean?
Here on the eve of 10/1, I have been on Twitter for 10 years, and have just crossed 10,000 followers. I've decided there's something very poetic about that.
Now that I am a bonafide thought leader and influencer, I should probably up my rates.
But really, what does 10,000 followers mean? What on earth have I tweeted about across 13,600+ individual tweets? I generate 80,000 Twitter impressions a month on average - all of which are numbers that just seem meaningless to me.
All I know is that Twitter has kept me in touch with an industry that is constantly changing, given me exposure to new friends, clients, and opportunities, and satisfies my hungry ego on a daily basis. Here's to 10,000 more.
5. Why selling a platform is so, damn, hard.
Tomasz Tunguz (VC at Redpoint) is a guy who speaks the truth in 300 words or less. Paraphrasing his article:
Selling a platform is challenging for five reasons.
First, most customers buy software to solve a particular and immediate problem... point solutions present a more concrete alternative of what is, rather than what could be.
Second, point solutions are ready to go. Platforms require config, customization, etc.
Third, the broader the platform, the more internal departments involved in the purchase (and the longer the sales process.)
Fourth, solution selling is necessary, but tends to fragment sales/marketing teams across the platform.
Fifth, both the ecosystem around the platform - and the customer themselves - must understand the sophisticated value and nuanced possibilities a platform provides.
Not easy.
6. Your agenda for next week in Boston:
MarTech Boston / Marketo Roadshow - two shows, one location.
Tuesday 10/3 @ 11:15am
See Allocadia's Sam Melnick analyze the martech strategies of a "$1B startup," GE DigitalTuesday 10/3 @ 11:15am
Or, you can go see Hally Pinaud of Marketo sharing strategies for sales and marketing alignment at the same time. She's brilliant and one of my favorite humans, and will be sooooo mad that I am giving her a shoutout here. Sorry I'm not sorry.
Wednesday 10/4 @ 3:15pm
"Trust Me, I'm a CMO (and Other Things Your CFO Doesn't Want to Hear)" featuring Allocadia CMO James Thomas and Bryan Semple, CMO of Smartbear. More here.Thursday 10/5 @ 10:15am
Me! "30+ Ways to Create Buzz." Come hear what Princess Diana, Tom Brady, and the Kardashians have to do with B2B buzz building. More here.Friday 10/6 @ 9:30am
"A Proven Process for Selecting Marketing Technology" featuring my friend Samantha Stone. At the show I'll be helping Sam celebrate the one-year birthday of our labor of love, Unleash Possible, named a "must-read book" for B2B marketers this summer by LinkedIn.
More on her session here (don't miss it), and the book here (look for my guest chapter!)
Friday 10/6 morning
Catch my panel with Mike Troiano, Scott Brinker, Anita Brearton, Janet Comenos, and Jeff Eckman, talking the "Marketing 3 Ts: Teams, Technology, and Transformation."
Phew. Next week is going to be a doozy. See you there.
7. Quote of the week
A reminder through this chaos to stop, breathe, reflect.
"Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?"
— Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
Have a great weekend,
Katie
www.katie-martell.com
PS: Hey, new kids, all the seasoned veterans on this list know that if they share my newsletter on Twitter, or here on LinkedIn, that the good karma fairy will visit you while you sleep and deliver 500000 bitcoins under your pillow. But because you should be donating to Puerto Rico, that's where the fairy will be sending your hard-earned $ this week.
No seriously, donate. Thoughts and prayers make it hard to source potable water.
See you next week...