As you know I’m at Seth Godin’s Medicine Ball event in NYC. Here are the biggest ideas I took away from the day:

Companies have a choice between being involved in a race to the top (best quality, or one-of-a-kind, something that makes your product really special to your target customers) or a race to the bottom (cheapest). The problem with the race to the bottom is there’s only one winner, and that winner may not have any profit left.

Marketing is about telling people a story that resonates with their worldview. It’s really important to know who you want to tell this story to. It’s also really important to know what keeps that person up at night. The thing you do and the story you tell (they better match) that connects with their pain or their joy, and that is also unique about you, that’s your “superpower”. Align everything you do to deliver really well on your superpower.

What people say to each other about your product is really important. You get to influence what they say by making your product genuinely remarkable, so talking about it becomes irresistible.

It’s essential as a marketer to develop a “tribe” of people who are fans of what you provide, and who honestly look forward to hearing from you. This is earning attention over a period of time by building trust and offering relevant value in your messages. Once you have trust, you have an opportunity to influence them to take action (buy something, donate, volunteer, etc.)

Personal P.S: Lots of things make me nervous. Like coming to this big busy city having no clue how to get around on the subway system. Or going to dinner with 16 incredibly smart and successful strangers, knowing nothing about what they will think of me. Or raising my hand to ask what might be a stupid question. I think it’s pretty normal to feel nervous and scared, and I do, almost every day. But I take these actions anyway, because the impactful life I want requires it, and because I know the actual danger or something harmful happening to me is really small. Here’s to intentionally doing scary new things.